Category: Deals Yearbook 2023

2021 was always going to be a tough year to follow. Quite how tough, few could have foreseen at the start of 2022.

With global annual deal values totalling almost $6trn – a jump of more than 60% on 2020 – 2021 was roundly described in breathless superlatives. Following a year of pent-up demand during the pandemic, soaring levels of M&A activity were fuelled by the vaulting ambition of private equity (PE) houses, a surge in tech and pharmaceutical sector deals, and a boom in activity from special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Continue reading “‘The wind was taken out of everyone’s sails’ – the M&A report 2023”

A global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, soaring energy prices and inflation, as well as interest rate hikes significantly pushing up the cost of debt – it is no wonder M&A markets are struggling right now. Against this backdrop of instability, arguably the bigger questions are how activity levels managed to hold up for as long as they have, and how they have not crashed further.

But, while City M&A partners are keen to stress that things could be far worse, and point to pipelines of deals in place for when markets pick up (see feature), the differences between now and this time last year are stark. Continue reading “M&A veterans: Got the T-shirt – M&A Hall of Famers on closing deals in a crisis”