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Financier Worldwide canvasses the opinions of leading professionals around the world on the latest trends in mergers & acquisitions.

UNITED STATES

G. Michael O’Leary

Andrews Kurth LLP

“With interest rates remaining artificially low in the US and a market starved for yield oriented securities, M&A activity in the US during the past 18 months has been quite strong, particularly in the energy and real estate sectors. These sectors include a substantial number of publicly traded partnerships and real estate investments trusts, the equity securities of which are yield-oriented and are particularly attractive in this market.”

CANADA

William M. Ainley

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP

“M&A activity in Canada over the last 12-18 months has been relatively strong: not to the level of pre-2008 M&A activity, but showing steady and continued improvement over the period. Among other factors, relatively healthy balance sheets for strategic acquirers, open credit markets in Canada for M&A activity for both strategic and financial buyers, and valuation levels which provide opportunities for earnings growth and accretion are driving deals in the current market.”

BRAZIL

Luis Haddad

Lilla, Huck, Otranto, Camargo

“M&A in Brazil continues to present rather stable growth, and has not suffered significantly as a consequence of the ups-and-downs in capital markets and the downturn of IPOs in the last two years. Interesting drivers of recent M&A activity are the need for restructuring in distressed situations; acquisitions and sales by private equity funds; solutions of succession deadlocks in family-owned companies; and international strategic players trying to enter or expand in the Brazilian market, and benefit from the booming consumption in the countries’ lower, middle and upper classes.”

GERMANY

Benno A. Packi

v. Boetticher Hasse Lohmann

“The euro crisis was one of the main drivers for M&A activity in Germany in 2011 and 2012. There are a number of investors from eurozone countries, in particular from Southern Europe, that have invested in Germany. Assets and companies with an intrinsic value caught the attention of these investors. In particular, the German real estate sector attracted such investors. Another driver for M&A activity was corporate succession in medium-sized companies, the so-called ‘Mittelstand’.”

POLAND

Paweł Sikora

KKG Kubas Kos Gaertner

“When it comes to M&A in Central & Eastern Europe (CEE), last year was definitely less interesting than 2011, which was considered to be a record-breaking year for M&A deals. In 2012, the total deal value of transactions in Poland was €9bn from 331 transactions completed – compared to 2011 where the total value was €18bn from 516 transactions completed. However, Poland remained among the region’s leading countries for M&A.”

CHINA

Lawrence Chia

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

“Through 2012, dealmaking in China remained robust, with the market actually witnessing the largest annual number of deals by volume since 2007. The bulk of this activity was driven by a renewed bout of domestic consolidation, spearheaded by the continued implementation of China’s 12th Five Year Plan, which is focused on shifting the economy’s wider technological frontier upwards and outwards via the promotion of what are called the ‘seven strategic sectors’.”

INDIA

Kartik Ganapathy

Indus Law

“Cross border M&A activity in 2012 remained relatively subdued. We noticed that, though the number of cross-border transactions reduced, domestic M&A activity, including internal restructuring exercises, continued steadily throughout the year. Published reports seem to indicate that the aggregate value of M&A transactions – both domestic and cross-border – was up by approximately 22.6 percent compared to 2011.”

MALAYSIA

George Koshy

Ernst & Young

“Malaysia has seen an increase in M&A activity compared to 2011 with total reported inbound and outbound M&A activity amounting to US$17.4bn. This is due to favourable macroeconomic conditions, a constructive regulatory environment and various economic transformation programmes currently undertaken by the government. As regional consolidation sectors and specialisation become important, those sectors seeing the most activity are the financial services, transportation and the energy sector.”

SAUDI ARABIA

Kevin T. Connor

Squire Sanders

“According to a report from Ernst & Young, overall M&A deal value in the MENA region grew by more than 40 percent in 2012 to nearly $45bn, compared to $31bn in 2011. The significant increase was driven in large measure by businesses restructuring their capital in 2011 and positioning themselves to finance and close deals. Countries ranked highest in terms of announced deal value were the UAE at $13.5bn, followed by Qatar at $11bn and Kuwait with $4bn.”

CONTRIBUTORS 

Andrews Kurth LLP

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

Ernst & Young

Indus Law

KKG Kubas Kos Gaertner

Lilla, Huck, Otranto, Camargo

Squire Sanders

v. Boetticher Hasse Lohmann