Favourable funding conditions and resurgent boardroom confidence have helped fuel a late flurry of mergers and acquisitions, buoying local deal prospects for 2018.

Even though 2017 was a quieter year overall for local deal making, bankers and lawyers canvassed by The Australian Financial Review are optimistic the late rush of more than $100 billion-plus in global transactions bodes well for mega deals and M&A momentum being sustained in 2018.