While issues were down by 13% to 511, the $US10 billion ($A10.6 billion) raised was down 60% on 2012.
The September quarter was the worst of the year for global fundraisings and initial public offerings, with total deal value falling to $39 billion from $78 billion in the June quarter.
Meanwhile, Australian mining and metals deals also slumped, with 136 deals, down 21%, worth $3.4 billion, down 76%.
Outbound M&A accounted for 31 deals worth $199 million, inbound M&A accounted for 136 deals worth $2 billion and domestic M&A accounted for 136 deals worth $1.2 billion.
South Africa was the top destination for outbound deals by value, while coal was the top target commodity for Australian outbound deals.
Globally, there were 537 deals worth $96.9 billion but, excluding the Glencore Xstrata mega deal, total global deal value was $59.5 billion, a 22% decline with volume down 24%.
Gold was the most targeted commodity for global deals in the first nine months of the year, while North America was the most targeted region.
EY Asia-Pacific mining and metals transaction leader Paul Murphy said ongoing price and currency volatility would continue to make deal completion difficult.
“Globally and in Australia there is a deal inertia and a seemingly unbridgeable valuation gap continuing to stymie deals,” he said.
EY forecasts volatility in commodity prices to continue for the next 2-3 years.
“This means greater difficulty matching buyer and seller price expectations and as a result current deal completion rates are poor,” Murphy said.
“Investors should seek to understand where value is being created through the introduction of greater production flexibility in the assets they are assessing for acquisition because it may uncover hidden value.”
But a renewed interest from the Chinese, as well as private equity firms, could be the shining light.
“Chinese buyers accounted for 60% of inbound investment for the first three quarters of this year and more than a third of total deal activity in Australia by value, compared to 8% of deals by value globally,” Murphy said.
Private capital interest in the global sector also continued to grow, with financial investors taking an increased share of total global deal value – 18% excluding the Glencore Xstrata merger, compared with 5% in 2012.
Murphy said Australian targets were not excluded from this with pre-production assets increasingly attractive to the growing number of resources equity funds and private capital.
“Small and medium sized miners are being starved of capital and have stretched out their precious cash to survive to date but at some point something has to give, so they will need to sell assets or find new partners who bring capital,” he said.
