Despite a lacklustre capital-raising landscape for equities, signs of improvement in the M&A market were supported by cheap bank loans and syndicated loans, as well as bond issuance. Outbound M&A shot up 70.7 per cent to US$ 37.3 billion, making the six-month period the most active since 2001, thanks to Shuanghui International’s US$ 4.7 billion bid for US food processing firm Smithfield Foods.