A number of private equity transactions across Europe have collapsed or been delayed in recent weeks, as the impact of the deepening sovereign debt crisis causes the market to deteriorate. Mark Spinner (pictured), partner at international law firm Eversheds, comments…
The current uncertainty in the Eurozone and volatility in the public markets is certainly making a number of private equity and corporate bidders take a sharp intake of breath. A number of deals we have been working on are now on hold waiting for the Eurozone to sort itself out and for buyer’s stock prices to stabilise. The key word at the moment seems to be ‘uncertainty’ and until we get better visibility of what is likely to happen most buyers, and indeed sellers, are prepared to play a ‘wait and see’ game.
It is again the upper end of the leveraged buyout market that appears to have been most affected by the current market conditions. In the mid-market, particularly the lower mid-market, there is still a good flow of mandates to be won although I think that it is fair to say processes are taking longer, which in itself creates a degree of uncertainty.
