The level of premiums on merger and acquisition deals in Europe are the lowest for seven years, after falling more than a third since 2000. It comes despite booming M&A markets in the first half of the year.

The change between the share price of a target company one month before a deal is announced and the eventual price offered per share was 20.9% on the 100 deals announced so far this year, according to Dealogic, an investment banking data provider. This is a 38% drop since 2000, when premiums on average for the 289 deals recorded were 33.9%. Last year the average premium on 161 deals was 25.6%.