The year is swiftly coming to a close and while fiscal cliff negotiations continue in Congress, we do have some good news.

The value of global announced private equity-backed mergers actually increased in December, according to data from Dealogic. There were 133 global announced mergers this month, valued at roughly $12.6 billion, Dealogic says. This compares to 156 transactions in December 2011, which totaled $11.4 billion. Transaction value jumped about 11% in December.

What does this mean? Well, not that much. In November, peHUB reported that PE executives were expecting a surge in deals in December, ahead of looming tax changes in January. “There will be a mad rush to get deals done,” a PE source told me.

December did turn out to be busy although the number of deals did drop nearly 15%. This was offset by an increase in global deal value.

Here are December’s top 5 deals, according to Dealogic.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

5. Topshop

In early December, British retail billionaire Philip Green sold a 25% stake in Topshop and Topman to Leonard Green & Partners. Dealogic values the deal at $805.2 million.

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