2009: The Year in Review

The year following Lehman's collapse was never going to be a strong one, but few would have guessed just how deep the trough would reach: In the first 11 months of the year, unquote" recorded just £6.3bn of deal activity in the UK, down from £24bn in the same time period of 2008, which itself was already half the £49.9bn in January-November 2007.

Average deal sizes have been contracting, too, from £100m in 2007 to £58m last year and just £22m this year. Notably, there were no mega-deals this year (EV ≥£1bn) though Apax's recently announced £975m Marken takeover came close. Just nine exceeded the £100m mark.

Not only did deal sizes shrink, but there were fewer of them - just 244 deals recorded so far this year, compared with 413 for the same period last year and 498 in the first 11 months of 2007.

There are already signs 2010 will be a better year, with advisers talking of bulkier and more robust pipelines, and lenders talking of new budgets to deploy.

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