When Lafarge and Holcim last week announced a merger of equals, it marked the third year in a row that one of Europe’s biggest deals was structured as such.

Last year, media giants Publicis and Omnicom announced their own merger of equals, with that deal scheduled to close at the end of this month. Meanwhile in 2012, Glencore and Xstrata unveiled a merger, though this later became a takeover by Glencore.