According to a survey by the Auditing firm KPMG Corporate Finance, cross-border merger and takeovers rose by 60% in the first six months of the year, compared to the same period in 1999, to reach $643 million. Europeans were the leading investors with 76% of the total, or $492 bn. Most of their transactions were on their own continent with $352 bn invested against only 102 bn in the first half of last year. The scale of operations also increased with an average of $194 million, against the...