Latest news with #Mergers
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-Larger deals power global M&A in H1, bankers signal appetite for megadeals
By Sabrina Valle, Milana Vinn and Kane Wu NEW YORK (Reuters) -Mergers and acquisitions during the first half of this year were not what investment bankers had hoped for, but a burst of big deals in Asia and renewed optimism in U.S. markets could be paving the way for megadeals. Market uncertainties stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war, high interest rates and broader geopolitical tensions hampered — but did not completely derail — what bankers expected to be a blockbuster year for global M&A, dealmakers say. Trump's tariff policies, kicked off by his self-styled "Liberation Day" on April 2, cast a chill over the markets and pushed several deals and initial public offerings into subsequent quarters. "The expectation was we would see a lot of deal activity in the first half of 2025, and the reality is we didn't see it," said Tommy Rueger, global co-head of equity capital markets at UBS, which Dealogic ranked No. 9 in equity capital markets revenue, according to preliminary data from January 1 through June 27. Interviews with more than a dozen top bankers signal growing confidence that the worst of the market turbulence is over. Fresh record closing highs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes have helped renew optimism that M&A in the second half of the year will be even stronger, dealmakers say. "There were a lot of deals that were put on hold that will come back," said Ivan Farman, co-head of global M&A at Bank of America, which was ranked No. 3 in overall investment banking revenue and No. 5 for M&A in Dealogic's year-to-date rankings. "I'm optimistic about the second half." There is reason for optimism, dealmakers say, with the recovery in the markets and Trump's easier antitrust policies paving the way for bigger deals. "The probability of very large transactions, perhaps $50 billion-plus, has increased versus a year ago," said John Collins, global co-head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Morgan Stanley, which was ranked No. 4 in overall fee revenue among investment banks and No. 3 for M&A deals. Some $2.14 trillion in deals were signed from January 1 through June 27, up 26% from the same period last year. Part of that increase, however, came from Asia, where activity more than doubled to $583.9 billion. Deal activity in North America rose to $1.04 trillion from January 1 through June 27, up 17% from the first half last year, according to preliminary data from Dealogic. Market volatility, as measured by the VIX index, has dropped to levels that indicate investors feel safer to invest today. "It's been clear that momentum continues to build, paving the way for larger transactions. People are feeling more positive than they were a month ago and starting to implement their decisions," said Philip Ross, vice chairman of Jefferies bank. As the markets calm down, institutional investors are starting to jump back in to equities and more companies are moving forward with IPO plans that had been postponed earlier this quarter. 'The combination of all of those together has created, over the last three to four weeks, an incredibly strong new issue backdrop and we've seen a significant uptick in activity," Rueger said. Saadi Soudavar, head of equity capital markets for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Deutsche Bank, added: "Equity markets have shown a remarkable ability to shrug off a lot of the tariff and geopolitical related volatility." MORALE BOOSTERS A few big deals helped boost market morale at the height of tariff turmoil, including Global Payments' $24.25 billion acquisition of a card processing and account services firm in April. Charter Communicationsin May agreed to buy privately held rival Cox Communications for $21.9 billion. And U.S.-based equipment manufacturer Chart Industries and Flowserve Corp agreed to merge, valuing the combined company at about $19 billion. There were 17,528 deals signed during the first half of this year, compared with 20,583 deals in the same period last year, according to Dealogic. But this year's deals were bigger in size, pushing the total value of deals higher. There was a 62% increase in the number of $10 billion-plus deals versus the same period last year, the data shows. Dealmaking in Asia was a bright spot. Overall M&A activity rose to $583.9 billion in the first six months, up from $269.9 billion a year ago. Led by Japan and China, the region accounted for 27.3% of the global M&A activity, gaining more than 11 percentage points from the same period last year. Some of the region's biggest deals were kept within the Asia-Pacific region. Toyota Motor announced plans on June 3 to take one of its suppliers private for $33 billion. On June 16, a consortium led by Abu Dhabi's National Oil Company (ADNOC) launched an $18.7 billion all-cash takeover of Australia's second-largest oil producer Santos. Asia also helped drive global equity issuance higher despite the market volatility, with overall volume rising nearly 8% to $350 billion from the same period last year. "You will see more Asia-to-Asia activity," said Raghav Maliah, global vice chairman of investment banking at Goldman Sachs, which was ranked No. 2 in overall investment banking fees and No. 1 in M&A revenue. "Japan has been a big driver in all the deal volumes (in Asia) and we do believe that trend will continue." 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Wall Street Journal
14-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
These Charts Show Why Wall Street's Gloom Over Deals Is Overblown
Wall Street bankers who were bemoaning a slowdown in deals are finding themselves now looking at a reasonably solid year. Maybe. The mood in M&A circles has been lukewarm under President Trump despite a number of megadeals this year, including Google's $32 billion agreement to purchase the cybersecurity startup Wiz and Charter Communications's $22 billion deal for Cox Communications. The damped enthusiasm is partly a result of dashed hopes: Many bankers had believed the Trump administration would usher in a surge in mergers and acquisitions after a relative lull in the past few years.
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
New State Merger Review Laws Could Harm U.S. Economy
U.S. states are ramping up their review of proposed mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Both Washington and Colorado have enacted new pre-merger notification statutes that will take effect this summer, and other states have introduced or are considering similar legislation. These changes could impose major new costs on potential merging parties and harm the U.S. economy. In addition, the Trump Administration may wish to consider revisiting costly changes imposed in a revised 2024 federal pre-merger rule. M&A Benefits As I previously discussed in Forbes, M&A activity generates major economic benefits by reallocating capital to higher-valued uses and thus yielding more efficient production and innovation. Specifically: M&A Costs and Federal Enforcement Oversight Trends As I previously explained, M&A activity may also, however, impose costs when it reduces competition in the marketplace. The Clayton Antitrust Act bars M&A transactions that may substantially lessen competition. A longstanding bipartisan federal enforcement consensus that targeted only those mergers that threaten to harm consumer welfare (by raising prices and reducing output, quality, or innovation) was overturned by the Biden Administration, which introduced a populist 'big is bad' skepticism of merger activity. These are 'early days' in the second Trump Administration. Nevertheless, new Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission antitrust enforcers appear to be signaling that they will focus on improvements in merger review process, rather than a return to the far less interventionist pre-Biden approach to merger analysis. Indeed, the Trump DOJ and FTC have kept in place 2023 Biden merger analysis guidelines that greatly relaxed prior guidelines' standard for deeming a merger problematic. The new guidelines disincentivized mergers by featuring novel and unproven theories of competitive harm. The new Trump enforcers also have retained an October 2024 revised pre-merger rule. Compliance with the revised rule 'require[s] New State Merger Legislative Requirements Will Likely Prove Harmful At its best, alignment of state and federal antitrust enforcement efforts is an example of beneficial 'cooperative federalism.' States can enforce federal merger law on behalf of their residents. They also may challenge mergers under state antitrust laws. State statutes may allow a local focus on small state-specific mergers not investigated by federal enforcers. State and federal merger enforcement may also, however, work at cross-purposes. State merger cases may generate highly costly, wasteful duplication of federal efforts, and may occasionally be in tension with federal antitrust policy. The 2024 Model Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act served as the basis for an April 2025 pre-merger notification law in Washington, with many other states expected to follow suit. The Model Act gives states access to federal pre-merger filings, subject to the same confidentiality requirements that apply under federal law. Widespread adoption of the Model Act will increase filing cost burdens on merging parties and will subject them to a greater risk of having sensitive non-public business information leak out from a variety of new sources. Even greater concerns stem from the fact that California and New York are considering pre-merger legislation that sweeps more broadly than the Model Act. The new pre-merger burdens would impose major new costs on merging parties. What's more, the California proposal would also establish a far lower substantive standard for striking down a merger ('an appreciable risk of materially lessening competition') than that found in federal law ('may be substantially to lessen competition'). This change raises the legal risk associated with merger proposals. It could seriously disincentivize many beneficial mergers for no good reason. Policy Implications and Next Steps Taken as a whole, recent state merger-related initiatives threaten significant U.S. economic harm. The U.S. has the strongest most innovative capital markets, which are key to driving economic growth. M&A plays a central role in the success of those markets. It keeps rivals on their toes and yields more vibrant competition. The weakening of M&A based on new state-created burdens and legal risks would tend to diminish economic growth and lower American competitive vitality, at least to a degree. This is that last thing we should want to do in a highly competitive global economy. The Trump Administration hopefully will take note. The President might, for example, direct the DOJ and the FTC to make 'competition advocacy' filings with the states highlighting the economic harm that specific merger-related legislative proposals would likely impose. The two agencies have specialized economists and lawyers with a long and respected history of making advocacy filings, directed at both state and federal government entities. The two agencies also use the 'bully pulpit' to emphasize the importance of continued close cooperation between federal and state antitrust enforcers. Federal and state enforcers already cooperate and make joint filings in a variety of cases. New state merger requirements could reduce the effectiveness of such cooperation. Finally, the FTC and the DOJ may wish to take a second look at the revised 2024 federal pre-merger rule to determine whether some of the costly new requirements it placed on filers could be eliminated. Issuing a new less costly rule could be good for American M&A. It would also be fully in tune with President Trump's April 2025 Executive Order on Reducing Anticompetitive Regulatory Barriers. Hopefully state and federal officials will take note and act to enhance the economic benefits of merger review.
Tahawul Tech
03-06-2025
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
Forcepoint appoints new CFO to help accelerate growth
Global data security leader Forcepoint recently announced the appointment of Matt Derdeyn as Chief Financial Officer. A seasoned finance executive with more than 20 years of experience in high-growth technology companies, Derdeyn joins Forcepoint's executive team as the company scales adoption of its recently launched Data Security Cloud, a complete, AI-powered data security platform uniting visibility and control of data everywhere it's created, stored or moved. Derdeyn brings extensive expertise in strategic finance, mergers and business transformation across both public and private equity-backed companies. He most recently served as CFO at Archer Technologies, where he led Archer through a double carve-out from Dell Technologies and RSA Security LLC, its immediate parent, and through a successful multi-billion dollar sale process while simultaneously accelerating organic growth into the double digits. His previous roles include CFO of LionTree and EVP/CFO of Answers Corporation, where he was instrumental in leading a marketing SaaS rollup through multiple acquisitions, and taking point on a dual path IPO/sale process which resulted in a strategic sale to APAX Partners. 'Matt's proven track record in building high-performance finance organisations, navigating complex capital structures and accelerating growth makes him the right leader to help fuel Forcepoint's growth', said Ryan Windham, CEO of Forcepoint. 'As enterprises look to adopt a more intelligent, adaptive approach to data security, Matt will help us scale our business and sharpen operational execution globally'. At Forcepoint, Derdeyn will oversee financial strategy and operations, supporting the company's continued momentum as the first cybersecurity company purpose-built to secure data exactly when it matters—through context-aware, AI-driven insights and controls that adapt in real time. 'This is a unique opportunity to help scale a company that's redefining what modern data security looks like', said Derdeyn. 'Forcepoint's self-aware approach delivers measurable value in knowing what data matters, adapting security on the fly and simplifying operations. Helping to shape the future of security when the data landscape keeps shifting is tremendously appealing'. Derdeyn holds a Juris Doctor and MBA in Finance from the University of Virginia, having earned degrees from both the UVA School of Law and the Darden School of Business. Image Credit: Forcepoint
National Post
16-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
AR Mergers Inc. Launches to Serve Canada's Mid-Market Business Owners with Empathy-Driven M&A Advisory
Article content MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — AR Mergers Inc., a boutique M&A advisory firm based in Mississauga, Ontario, has been founded to serve a market often underserved by larger firms: privately held Canadian businesses valued between $3 million and $30 million. The firm brings a unique, empathy-driven approach to mergers and acquisitions, placing business owners—and their legacy—at the center of every engagement. Article content Article content AR Mergers builds on the foundation of experience established by its sister company, AR Business Brokers, a trusted leader in Main Street business sales for over 13 years. With hundreds of small business transactions completed, AR Business Brokers has earned national recognition for its results-driven execution and client-centered approach. Article content AR Mergers, however, was designed as a distinct, boutique advisory firm—focused exclusively on the lower-middle market. With its own dedicated team, methodology, and mandate, AR Mergers brings strategic focus and high-touch execution to transactions that demand a more sophisticated process and buyer pool. Article content Founded by a team of experienced advisors and entrepreneurs, AR Mergers was created to bring industry experience and trusted guidance to business owners navigating complex transitions. Article content 'We started AR Mergers to give everyday business owners access to the kind of support typically reserved for larger companies,' said Pratik Mehta, Founding Partner at AR Mergers. 'This segment of the market deserves meaningful representation, honest advice, and solutions that reflect the value they've built.' Article content AR Mergers provides a confidential, structured process to support owner-led companies preparing to sell, transition, or plan for succession. Acting as a dedicated intermediary, the firm bridges the gap between business owners and sophisticated buyers—such as private equity firms or strategic acquirers—while ensuring that each client's goals, values, and legacy remain at the forefront. Article content AR Mergers operates with a five-phase methodology—from goal alignment to closing—ensuring a competitive and well-managed process. The team works closely with trusted legal and financial advisors to maintain deal momentum and mitigate risk. Article content Free, confidential consultations are available. Article content About AR Mergers AR Mergers (ARM) is a boutique M&A advisory, that exists to create the most effective path for owners of Canadian Businesses to sell their company. We guide transactions with empathy, clarity and expert execution. Each step we take is deliberate and results-driven. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
