Mergers and acquisitions worth nearly $90 billion (£51.8 billion) have collapsed since September 1 as turmoil has spread through financial markets, undermining the ability of companies to complete deals.

Experian, the credit agency, became the latest British group to scrap plans for a deal yesterday, saying that it would no longer be selling Price-Grabber, its online price comparison website.

Mark Wood, chief executive of Paternoster, Britain’s second-largest pension buyout company, said that the group is not expected to complete any more deals until next year because of the difficulties in the markets.

M&A deals worth a total of $121.6 billion have been withdrawn globally since September 1, although in some cases the target companies were acquired by other buyers later. Deals worth about $89.5 billion have collapsed with no new bidders stepping in, according to figures from Dealogic. The bulk of these have occurred since September 15, when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, unleashing havoc in global financial markets. The largest number of withdrawn deals were in the property industry, followed by technology and finance.

Mark Jarvis, a partner at Ernst & Young who specialises in transaction advisory services, said that companies were facing two main problems. While share prices had plummeted in recent weeks, opening up big opportunities for strong companies to pick up bargains, he said that huge volatility in prices had made it virtually impossible for would-be acquirers to place sensible valuations on targets.

“We have seen share prices rise and fall by 15 to 20 per cent in a week,” he said. “It’s very hard to commit to any kind of deal in that environment.”

The virtual closure of the debt markets has compounded the problem by eliminating potential bids from most companies, unless they have extremely strong balance sheets.

“If you want to do anything before year-end, you had better be doing it with 100 per cent cash,” one senior investment banker in the energy sector said. “There is simply no debt available right now.”

Among the deals that have fallen through in recent weeks, HSBC walked away from a $6.3 billion bid for 51 per cent of Korea Exchange Bank.

The Switzerland-based Xstrata scrapped its £5 billion bid for miner Lonmin. Mick Davis, Xstrata’s chief executive, blamed “extreme volatility and uncertainty” in the financial markets for his decision to withdraw the £33-a-share offer.

Nevertheless, Mr Jarvis said he believed that there was still a considerable appetite to do deals from many companies, particularly in industries such as mining, as well as oil and pharmaceuticals. He said that there were many chief executives eager to do deals once the present volatility had subsided, but they were holding off until the new year. “With valuations down so much, many bigger companies think this is an excellent opportunity to consolidate but most are adopting a wait and see approach,” he said.

The flow of deals has not dried up completely, even in the midst of such volatile conditions.

As well as the shotgun consolidation in the banking sector - most of which has been driven by government action – there has been a rash of bids for smaller oil companies in recent weeks, as sliding share and oil prices have encouraged reserve-hungry companies to go bargain-hunting.

Distressed oil explorers with reserves but little cash or production and a heavy reliance on the debt markets are viewed as particularly vulnerable.

While the FTSE 100 index plunged by 9 per cent last Friday, shares in Soco, the Asia and Africa-focused oil group, surged by 40 per cent at one point as it confirmed that it had received an approach, thought to be from SinoChem, a Chinese oil and petrochemicals giant.

Salamander Energy, the Asia-focused oil group, also made a hostile all-share approach for Serica, a rival, on September 29.

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