LONDON: Global corporate M&A activity involving sovereign wealth funds recovered sharply to $3.61 billion in the second quarter, although the figure is less than a fifth of the volume at the end of 2008, data showed on Friday. According to data from Thomson Reuters, global announced merger and acquisition volumes involving state-owned funds, which include pending and completed deals, stand at $2.67 billion so far in the third quarter. There were 14 pending and completed announced deals in the April-June period, down from 35 in the final three months of 2008. For the third quarter, there are seven completed and announced deals. SWF-involved M&A activity took a hit in the first three months of this year, with volumes sinking to just $1.0 billion from $19 billion in the final quarter of 2008. This compares with a record volume of $45.4 billion set in the first three months of 2006. Sovereign wealth funds have been on a rollercoaster during the credit crisis. They poured some $80 billion into banking shares before the peak of the crisis, only to see value of their investments implode within months. Many funds have shifted focus away from aggressive investment abroad and instead put money into assets at home or into strategic foreign assets, such as food and energy, that fit in with national economic policy.
