Global M & An activity broke records for the second consecutive quarter, as companies continued to borrow cheaply and use cash reserves for transformational deals to reposition the world after COVID-19 's outbreak, according to data released by Refinitiv on Thursday.

Global M & A transactions reached $1.5 trillion in the second quarter, an all-time high and up 13 per cent from the first quarter, despite a slowdown in M & An activity involving (SPAC), a special-purpose acquisition company, according to the data.

The volume of M & A transactions in the United States reached $699 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 440% compared with the same period last year when M & An activity stalled.

Mergers and acquisitions in the Asia-Pacific region rose 104 per cent to $327 billion, while Europe grew 50 per cent to $293 billion.

Some of the biggest deals of the quarter were done domestically as companies worried about rising protectionism and geopolitical tensions and avoided looking for opportunities outside their own countries.

The $40 billion merger between Grab, Southeast Asia's largest ride-hailing and food delivery company, and Altimeter, a US special-purpose acquisition company, is one of the few large cross-border deals that topped the second-quarter rankings.

The number of global mergers and acquisitions fell 10 per cent in the second quarter from the first quarter, but the number of large deals worth more than $5 billion increased by 127 per cent.