Welcome to the 27th issue of the EMEA Private Equity Market Snapshot (PEMS), a quarterly publication focusing on the Private Equity (PE) market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

From a numbers perspective, mega deals were the big news this quarter. Though the number of completed deals was down, aggregate value in EMEA grew 25%, with two sectors, Communications Services and Industrials, dominating the field. Notably, cross-border investments received significant attention from EMEA-based General Partners.

That said, the big questions on investors' minds remain centred on the global pandemic and how we can expect it to reshape the Private Equity landscape in the coming months. This issue, we put our ear to the ground to bring you insights from the 2020 British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Summit. Across several speakers, themes of agility and trust come through strongly, as investors seek to place capital with firms who have quality track records on delivering returns.

We close with a feature article on the European leveraged finance market and its resilience in the face of the global uncertainty that has defined 2020. While it is too early to have a complete understanding of the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is reason to believe that banks have learned important lessons from the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and that we will weather this storm with less overall collateral damage.