Methodology

How this database is built

A deal database without a published methodology is not a product, it is a list. This page sets out exactly what Meridian counts, what it throws out, and why. If you disagree with a rule, you can see it and argue with it. That is the point.

3396

Transactions tracked

385

Eligible for league tables

1267

Excluded

€956.8bn

Eligible volume

Where the data comes from

Meridian ingests headlines in near real time from regulators and exchanges, newswires and company releases, and the financial press -- with a deliberate weight towards Iberian outlets, because Iberian mid-market deals are poorly covered in English.

Every record is tied to a published source article, and every record links to it. A language model translates headlines into English and sorts them into fields; it selects and structures, and does not add facts. It also writes the short Meridian analysis note on each item, under the same rule: only what the source states, with no invented prices, multiples, leverage or outcomes, and an explicit note of what the source does not disclose. Notes that merely restate the summary are discarded. If a record cannot be traced to a source article, it is not published.

What counts as a deal

·A single, identifiable transaction: an acquisition, a buyout, an equity or debt issue, a project financing, a restructuring.

·It has a source article we can link to.

·For M&A and LBOs: both an identified acquirer and an identified target.

·Its value, where stated, is the size of that transaction -- not a valuation, a market size, a sector total, a market capitalisation or an aggregate.

What is excluded, and why

Exclusions are recorded against each record with a reason, so the decision is auditable rather than arbitrary. The current tally:

Not a transaction497

Rumoured or exploratory, not an announced transaction248

No verifiable source link112

M&A/LBO with no identified acquirer or target94

Market aggregate, not a transaction23

Valuation, not a transaction size8

Aggregate of multiple transactions7

Conflicting reports on the same target; unverified4

Outside coverage (non-European, under 1bn)4

Supply contract, not an acquisition1

Superseded by the completed transaction1

Intra-group capital injection, not a transaction1

Market aggregates are the most common trap. “AI groups issue $182bn in bonds” is not a transaction; a $2tn IPO valuation is not a deal size; a government infrastructure programme is not an acquisition. All of these are tracked as market news and carry no value in the league tables.

Currency

Values are recorded in the currency of the source and converted to euros so that they can be compared. Adding dollars, pounds and euros together without converting them produces a number that means nothing.

Each transaction is converted at the European Central Bank reference rate for its own date -- not at a single fixed rate applied across the whole period. A fixed rate quietly distorts any cross-currency table; over six months of a moving euro it can shift a ranking. Where a deal falls on a weekend or a holiday, the most recent preceding ECB rate is used. The rate applied to each deal, and the date it came from, are stored against that record.

Source: European Central Bank daily reference rates. Currencies covered: AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD. If a deal is denominated in a currency the ECB does not publish, it is recorded but carries no euro value and does not enter the league tables.

What this database is not

It is not exhaustive. It captures deals that were reported in the sources we track, which means smaller and private transactions are under-represented, and the Iberian coverage -- although it is our focus -- is still building. Treat the league tables as a picture of reported dealmaking, not of all dealmaking.

Corrections

Automated pipelines make mistakes: a mis-tagged sector, a value read from the wrong line, a rumour recorded as signed. If you find one, tell us and we will correct or remove the record. Write to us via the contact page. Corrections are the cheapest credibility there is.