Fidelity National Information Services Inc.'s carve-out and sale of a majority stake in payment processor WorldPay (UK) Ltd. was the largest European M&A transaction in July.

GTCR LLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm, agreed to acquire a 55% stake in London-headquartered WorldPay for €11.68 billion. Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) will retain a 45% stake in the business, which was valued at around $43 billion when it was acquired by FIS a little over four years ago.

The deal is the third-largest in Europe so far in 2023, following Bunge Ltd.'s €16.70 billion acquisition of fellow agribusiness Viterra Ltd. and Carrier Global Corp.'s €11.84 billion purchase of German manufacturer Viessmann Climate Solutions SE. At least 11 banks have secured advisory roles on the deal, S&P Global Market Intelligence data shows.

Other notable deals during July included French conglomerate Bolloré SE's €4.65 billion sale of a logistics subsidiary to CMA CGM SA, Gucci-owner Kering SA's purchase of a 30% stake in Italian fashion group Valentino SpA for €1.70 billion, and Collins Aerospace's disposal of its UK-based actuation and flight control business to Safran SA for €1.61 billion.

M&A activity was muted in July with 923 deals announced, down from 1,553 in the year-ago period and 1,198 the previous month. The aggregate transaction value also fell, albeit less so primarily due to the WorldPay deal.

The dearth of deal-making activity weighed on investment banks' performance in the second quarter. Advisory revenues fell at most of the largest global banks, while the overall industry wallet fell to its lowest level since 2016.

– See the deal profile page for the WorldPay-GTCR transaction. – Access M&A data using the transactions screener tool. – Read more about investment banks' advisory performance.