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 previous 147 million. The Americans, in second place in the league of the most active investor countries, were also more dynamic in the first half of this year with 1,744 transactions, against 1,348 for the same period last year. The survey also provides the following details: I) in all, acquisitions in Europe amounted to $421 bn, or double last year's ($210 bn); ii) taking all continents together, the most active investor country was the United Kingdom with $256.16 bn invested, way ahead of France (112 bn), the United States (95.48 bn), Germany (23.27 bn), Canada (23.10 bn), Spain (22.66 bn), the Netherlands (20.13 bn), Italy (12.15 bn), Finland (10.40 bn), and Sweden (9.88 bn); iii) the most attractive countries for investors were German, with $208.87 bn invested in the country, way ahead of the United States (133.17 bn), the United Kingdom (118.12 bn), Canada (33.38 bn), France (18.83 bn), Belgium (17.08 bn), Sweden (13.16 bn), Denmark (11.96 bn), Brazil (7.87 bn) and Mexico (7.10 bn); iv) the services sector was the most sought after with $ 98 bn invested, followed by financial services (68 bn), energy and public services (39 bn), and the leisure industry (23 bn).