Deal revival fires the market

Iberia is often – unfairly – perceived as a sleepy backwater in terms of headline European M&A, but 2005 firmly blew away that misconception. In 2005, Spain saw a 154% increase in the value of deals compared with the previous year, reaching €138.9bn (£95bn). This was comfortably more than Italy, the Nordic region and Benelux, and not far behind countries such as Germany, valued at €162bn (£111bn), and France, at €183bn (£126bn).