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* Year-to-date worldwide M&A volumes reach $1.1 trillion
* Healthcare, pharmaceutical deals drive activity
* Goldman Sachs tops M&A league table (Adds background, details, quotes from bankers)
By Clare Hutchison and Anjuli Davies
LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) - The value of worldwide mergersand acquisitions announced so far this year has topped $1trillion, passing that level for only the third time this earlyin the year since records began in 1980, weekly Thomson Reutersdata showed on Friday.
Deal volumes started to recover earlier this year afterfalling back in 2013 due to a mix of economic uncertainty,regulatory interventions and shareholder activism that madeexecutives cautious about pursuing deals.
By the end of the first quarter of this year, deal activityhad risen 54 percent on the same period last year, with dealsworth a total of $710 billion announced.
Bankers said confidence appeared to be returning, with somecompanies are becoming bolder and more aggressive.
"M&A seems to be back," one banker told Reuters.
This week's data shows year-to-date volumes of $1.1trillion, helped by a flurry of deals in the healthcare andpharmaceuticals sectors.
Earlier this week Zimmer Holdings said it would buyrival orthopaedic products maker Biomet for $13.35billion - the largest deal in the healthcare equipment sectorsince Johnson & Johnson acquired Synthes in 2011.
The deal came one day after Canada's Valeant PharmaceuticalsInternational together with activist investor BillAckman made an unsolicited $47 billion bid to buy Botox-makerAllergan.
European dealmakers were also busy, as Swiss drugmakerNovartis and GlaxoSmithKline announced anagreement to trade more than $20 billion worth of assets.
Investors reacted positively to the asset exchange, andindustry sources believe the transaction could become a templatefor future M&A deals in the pharma sector and beyond, especiallybetween large corporates.
"It just makes sense for companies to get stronger in fewerbusinesses," said one sector banker.
U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs, an adviser toBiomet and Novartis, climbed to the top of the M&A league tableafter working on deals worth $72 billion this week. MorganStanley took second place, while Bank of America MerrillLynch lay in third.
Dealmakers are expected to remain busy in the coming weeks,with several potential tie-ups in the pipeline.
Media reports earlier this week said Pfizer hasapproached British rival AstraZeneca to propose a $101billion takeover.
Sources told Reuters on Friday that U.S. conglomerateGeneral Electric was in talks with France's Alstom to take over its global power turbines division.
(For more detail on the week's investment banking data pleaseclick: http://share.thomsonreuters.com/PR/IB/IB_Scorecard/Weekly_Scorecard_042414.pdf)
(Editing by Erica Billingham and Keiron Henderson)
