Following the greatest decline in a decade in the European merger-and-acquisition deal values during the first two months of 2005, M&A experienced a revival due to several cross-border takeovers made in March.

M&A bankers are certain of the improvement in the situation and are considering Italy, Spain and Germany as fertile areas for corporate buyouts. Telecommunications, commercial banking and real estate are of higher priority for M&A activity in the coming months.

For the first quarter to March 24, the most recent figures released by data provider Thomson Financial pinpointed transactions involving any European buyer or seller at $150.7 billion (€116.11 billion). This compares to $206.6 billion in last year’s first three months, a quarter prevailed by the $65.7 billion French pharmaceuticals takeover of Aventis SA by Sanofi-Synthelabo SA. For instance, the biggest announced deal for this quarter has been Spanish real-estate company Metrovacesa SA’s $10.3 billion.

In the U.S., M&A volumes for deals involving a U.S. buyer or seller were $251.7 billion in the quarter to March 24. For the full quarter last year volumes were $241.8 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

In other high-profile, cross-border Europe deals, Vodafone Group PLC, the world’s biggest mobile-phone network operator, paid $4.4 billion to achieve control over mobile operators in Romania and the Czech Republic, while Swiss drugs maker Novartis promoted its generics manufacturing capability, purchasing German rival Hexal for $5.68 billion.

Border-jumping M&A deals in Europe increased to $54.84 billion compared with $24.95 billion in last year’s first quarter, according to data provider Dealogic. This is the fastest growth in cross-border M&A since the fourth quarter of 2000, encouraging many M&A bankers who believe this is a sign of a new phase in deal-making after years when the emphasis was given to domestic market consolidation, said Dow Jones Newswires.