Dealmaking is off to its fastest start to a year since 2007. Cheap financing, rising boardroom confidence and booming stock markets have propelled the value of global merger and takeover activity to just under $2 trillion by mid-June - up 28% on the same point in 2014, according to data provider Dealogic.

Europe, however, finds itself trailing other regions in terms of its share of a market that has witnessed frenetic activity this year. The US is responsible for $877 billion of this year's deals to date, almost half of the global total, while Europe's share of the total is just 25% - the lowest proportion since 1998.