It helps that 2020’s M&A activity offers a very beatable target. According to management consultant Bain & Company in its 2021 Global M&A Report – well worth downloading from its website – about $2.8 trillion (£2.0 trillion) of deals were concluded in 2020. That was 15 per cent less than 2019’s $3.3 trillion and the lowest total since 2013. Arguably, however, the encouraging factor is how strongly deal-making held up. In the third and fourth quarter, deal value was 30 per cent ahead of 2019’s comparatives.

It also helps that there is lots of ready money to fund deals. Loan capital remains dirt cheap; stock market valuations mean equity isn’t that much more expensive and private equity is groaning under the weight of committed funds – about $2.8 trillion-worth, according to Bain.