The flow of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions in defence and security markets held firm during the first quarter of 2020, although activity was characterised by smaller, in-fill deals, contrasting with the transformational upper-tier mergers of the previous two years. A total of 31 deals were tracked by Jane's during the three months to 30 March: unchanged from the quarterly average during 2019 and barely down from the average of 33 transactions each quarter since the start of 2015. However, the aggregate value of first-quarter transactions was down substantially at USD4.1 billion, compared with levels of USD7.9 billion and USD9.7 billion in the fourth and third quarters of 2019 respectively. Total activity in 2019 was USD153 billion, but this included the USD121 billion merger of Raytheon and United Technologies Corporation (UTC) announced in the second quarter of the year, as well as US private equity firm Advent International's USD5 billion bid for UK defence group Cobham in the third quarter.
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