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The Great Soprendo would struggle with such a feat. But magic be damned - all you need is a good squeeze on credit to perform a disappearing act.

Globally M&A has evaporated, with deal number, deal volume and deal size all taking a severe pruning in August.

In the UK, the drop off has been dramatic, after escalating activity in the first six months of the year. Data from Thomson Financial show that UK M&A plummeted from $59.4bn announced in July to just $9.4bn in August, while excluding deals without a disclosed value the average deal size fell from $412m to a rather more puny $75m.

Meanwhile, the largest deals have vanished all together.

The death of the mega-deal has been complete, while in the next bracket down deals of between $1bn and $5bn fell from a total of $15bn in July, $2.7bn in August.

But do not dispair. Though the prospects for multi-billion dollar, private equity-backed buyouts may seem diminished, the banks are keeping the M&A faith.

Financial News reports that European banks are planning to hire more bodies for their M&A efforts, despite concern that ongoing trama in the credit markets may make deals harder to sew up. Perhaps with private equity shackled, the UK’s companies can be persauded that now is the perfect moment for them to go shopping. And the survey found that the UK continues to be seen as the most active region for deal-making.

Fire up powerpoint and get pitching out there.