March 2022 ended with more disappointing news about global and US deal activity.
M&A DECLINE MAJOR MEDIA STORY
For example, the Financial Times article, published the last day of March, was typical in reporting on the sustained decline:
“Global dealmaking fell to its lowest level since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as surging inflation, tougher regulation and the war in Ukraine led to a slowdown in what had been a record period of mergers and acquisitions.”
Another development which has gotten attention has been this: With the Senate approval of Alvaro Bedoya, the FTC now has a progressive majority. That could empower FTC Chairperson Lina Kahn to be more aggressive in antitrust scrutiny of proposed deals.
But April blew in some changes in that overall narrative.
PAUL WEISS DOCUMENTS SPRING DEALMAKING PATTERNS
In its official report on M&A activity, law firm Paul Weiss presents recent highlights. As a Wall Street law firm, Paul Weiss knows how the direction of dealmaking directly affects financial firms. Here are the developments of most interest:
Positive Trends
- Yes, since March, the deal count continued to decline. That had been by 14%. However, in April for the first time in 2022, there had been increases in total deal value. Actually, aggregate deal value increased by 33% in the US and 39% globally in April versus March.
- In the US, both strategic and sponsor deals followed the broader decline trend - 18% and 4%, respectively - according to count. However, they increased in total deal value - 45% and 20%, respectively.
- As for the global picture, sponsor deals more than doubled in aggregate value, increasing by 105%. But strategic deals only had an uptick of 1%.
More of the Same
Simultaneously, US crossborder activity did decline in April. Both inbound and outbound deal count decreased by 17% and 5%, respectively. In terms of value there was a decrease for both – 14% and 30%, respectively.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
After presenting those highlights in its Client Memorandum, Paul Weiss also provides a comprehensive update of global and US dealmaking. In addition, the report lists the law firm experts available to provide insight and guidance.
Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com. Now and then she does freelance communications assignments for professional services firms such as Paul Weiss.
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