Dealmakers: say goodbye to your weekends
Deals, typically announced on Monday after a weekend sprint, have for the past two years languished at decades-level lows. But it looks like lawyers, investment bankers and other advisers have busier weekends to look forward to.
On Monday a rush of big deals crossed the wire in the US, which amounted to more than $35bn in transactions. After a long drought, so-called merger Mondays might be back.
It started with Omnicom, which agreed to a $13bn all-stock acquisition of rival advertising group Interpublic, a tie-up that would create the world’s largest advertising agency.
The combined company, with $25bn in annual revenue, will be better positioned to compete with Google parent company Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta in competing for digital advertising dollars.
Then came GTCR and Apax Partners’ $13.4bn sale of insurance brokerage AssuredPartners to competitor Arthur Gallagher, one of the year’s largest asset sales. Finally, Novolex’s near-$7bn deal for Pactiv Evergreen, the latest consolidation in the packaging and manufacturing industry.
For some dealmakers, the numerous deals are a matter of convenience more than broader optimism. With a few weekends left in the year, the time for announcing transformative transactions without spoiling Christmas dinner or a New Year’s holiday party is limited.
“I wouldn’t read into it,” one of Wall Street’s top mergers and acquisitions bankers told DD. “If you’re trying to get deals announced, you’re trying to get them announced quickly.”
But after several years of a record-low number of deals, other lawyers and investment bankers can’t help but interpret Monday’s spate of events as a sign of more to come.
The imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House has lifted hopes that larger corporations will pursue transformative transactions.
That’s even if Gail Slater, his nominee to lead the Department of Justice’s antitrust division is considered an advocate of tough antitrust stances (at least on Big Tech).
“It can’t get worse than the antitrust environment we’ve been in,” said George Casey, the global chair of Linklaters’ corporate practice.
That’s led some big corporations to express curiosity about the possibility of tie-ups. Get ready for a host of “exploring takeover” headlines — such as Mondelez cozying up to US chocolate maker Hershey, as Bloomberg reported.
At a minimum, dealmakers are fielding more phone calls. At least, that’s the case for prolific Paul Weiss dealmaker Scott Barshay.
“Clients who’ve been sitting on the sidelines for the past four years are suddenly eager to explore deals,” he said. “Even the challenging ones.”