It seems that at least the German entrepreneurs start the year 2012 optimistically. Despite the debt crisis and the possible bankruptcy of various European countries, already now at the beginning of the year many companies think about mergers, transactions and takeovers. Especially transnational projects are on the agenda this year - according to the Handelsblatt, at least, this results from a study undertaken by the financial institute Mergermarket. In the previous year, in Western Europe alone 18,634 deals were concluded successfully.

This forecast, however, is not reflected on a worldwide level: already in 2011 global transactions have decreased and various institutes are also expecting no increase in this area for 2012. The ZEW-ZEPHYR M&A Index for example showed a decrease by 15 percent for mergers and takeovers in 2011. This is due to the continuing pessimistic mood on the stock markets, the uncertainty regarding development of the debt crisis in the Euro zone and also increasing re-financing cost caused by deteriorated ratings.

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