Sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the sentences in the right order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph.

A. Insurance activity in Europe is carried out by nearly 5,300 companies.
B. The breakdown of M&A activity across countries is very similar indicating that the M&A phenomenon is taking place all over Europe. 

C. In recent years there has been a steady decline in the number of companies operating in the insurance sector owing to intense merger and acquisition activities. 

D. With the creation of the European single market at the end of the 20th century, insurance companies entered a phase of intense merger and acquisition activities at national and European levels in order to reach a critical size that would allow them to act at the European level.