The number of finished merger and acquisition deals decreased by 50 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 amid the global economic slowdown, suggests a report.

The report, written by China Venture Group, a Chinese private equity research agency, said most mergers and acquisitions involving Chinese enterprises are now occurring in the energy and mining industries.

"Because of the global economic recession, there were fewer mergers and acquisitions in the first three months," Wan Ge, author of the report and an analyst at China Venture Group, said on Wednesday.

"But, if historical performances are any indication, the number of deals in the following quarters will increase steadily."

The first three months of the year saw only 404 finished merger and acquisition deals, 50 percent fewer than in the same period last year. Details related to 339 of those were disclosed, showing that they had a total value of 120.6 billion yuan ($19.2 billion), a decrease of 43.9 percent year-on-year, the report showed.

The first quarter saw 65 deals completed in the energy and mining industries. Those were valued at 55.9 billion yuan and accounted for 46 percent of the total value of such deals in that period.

The industries' trade value was much larger than that of manufacturing, which was the second largest industry in the ranking and only took up 7 percent of the total.

"China has a huge demand for energy and positively goes abroad to seek opportunities," Wan said. "Usually, Chinese buyers are State-owned enterprises with enough money. So the trade value of these deals is considerable."

The largest energy and mining deal among the 65 came when China National Offshore Oil Corp Ltd, the country's biggest marine oil producer, announced in February that it would close on sale and purchase agreements brokered with the British oil firm Tullow Oil PLC. The agreements will enable the company to purchase a one-third interest in each of Tullow's three exploration areas in Uganda. The transaction was valued at about $1.47 billion in cash.

The number of deals that were started in the first quarter of 2012 also decreased to 712, down 40.6 percent from the same period last year. There were 576 deals that have disclosed their trade value, which came to 345 billion yuan, a 2.4 percent drop year-on-year.

Domestic merger and acquisition deals made up 87 percent of all of the deals involving Chinese enterprises in the first quarter, Wan said.