Global law firm White & Case LLP today released the results of its Global M&A Sentiment Tracker, a global survey of 800 senior M&A executives in a wide variety of sectors. The survey was conducted in the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America in the fourth quarter of 2019 (before the beginning of the coronavirus crisis).Dealmakers across the globe are optimistic about the outlook for M&A activity in the coming year, with 86 per cent of respondents saying they expect M&A activity to increase in their region in 2020.
That’s according to Global law firm White & Case’s Global M&A Sentiment Tracker, a global survey of 800 senior M&A executives in a wide variety of sectors. The survey was conducted in the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America in the fourth quarter of 2019 (before the beginning of the coronavirus crisis).
“As the world focuses on the spread of the coronavirus, dealmakers’ appetite for M&A may pause and the inevitable economic downturn may happen sooner than expected,” says John Reiss, Global Head of M&A at White & Case. “We expect that companies that were already struggling will probably feel it the most.”
The survey found that 50 per cent of dealmakers said they plan to lean into a downturn, particularly if valuations come down as a result.
Reiss says: “Once dealmakers feel they can evaluate the market impact of the virus and the situation has stabilised, it’s likely that we’ll see renewed enthusiasm and M&A executives are likely to lean in.”
A key factor for dealmaker confidence is a healthy financing environment, which respondents ranked as the most important driver of M&A in 2020, and 66 percent said they expect financing options to get better over the next year.
The survey also found that trade and national security policies have created pent-up demand for cross-border deals, with 76 per cent of respondents saying they expect to carry out at least one cross-border deal in the next year and 80 percent expect to increase cross-border dealmaking in 2020.
