Private equity firms may be sitting on an estimated $500bn (€395bn) of uninvested cash at the moment, but they are not ready to go on a shopping spree just yet.

August has been a busy month for mergers and acquisitions, but the bulk of the global volume has come from companies making strategic buys, rather than private equity looking for financial plays. Companies engage in "strategic" acquisitions when they see a good fit with their current operations.