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M&A Looks Grim for 2009

  • Tom Mclain
    Dec 30 2008, 04:31 PM
    A 12/30/2008 story on BusinessWeek bears a cheery title: "M&A Looks Grim for 2009."

    http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/dec2008/pi20081...

    The thrust of the article is that we can expect the continuing credit market problems to kill all but "mergers of necessity."

    What is the outlook in your market area?

  • Lambert Binge
    Jan 10 2009, 01:23 PM
    I would not be that pessimistic and the businessweek article actually ends in a more optimistic tone. The FT Alphaville blog writes that according to a poll by UBS 51 per cent of CEO's of European companies expect no change to their M&A plans versus a year ago, only 27 per cent plan to decrease their spending

    http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/12/11/50337/ma-outlook-...

  • Lambert Binge
    Jan 12 2009, 08:27 PM
    Another interesting article. KPMG thinks, mergers and acquisitions are unlikely to rebound before the last quarter of 2009.

    “The corner may well be turned late in the second half of this year,” Barrett said in a statement today. Declining stock markets will make companies more attractive targets, he added.

    The pace of mergers and acquisitions dropped 39 percent to $2.48 trillion in 2008 as the credit crisis checked companies’ ability to fund deals, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=arm0zpin...

  • J. M.
    Jan 13 2009, 05:18 AM
    The first large-scale M&A transaction of 2009: Germany's RWE, Europe's fifth-largest utility buys Dutch peer Essent's production and delivery assets for 8.2 billion $11 billion, to expand its gas and renewable energy operations.

    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/681f5b6a-dd64-11dd-930e-000077b076...

  • Lambert Binge
    Jan 28 2009, 11:58 AM
    Something "positive" to report:

    M&A for distressed companies to grow in 2009
    "Already this year, there have been six deals involving bankrupt companies worldwide, for a value of about $14 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data. That makes up 9 percent of all worldwide M&A so far...Distressed asset sales are expected to rise 91 percent this year."
    http://uk.reuters.com/article/partiesNews/idUKTRE50Q6TB20090...

    Meanwhile, Blackstone founder Schwarzman sees ‘wonderful time’ for Buyouts...
    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJJx48Oe...

    Well, but times for buyers are always "wonderful" when no one else is buying. And companies like Blackstone should have been more patient:

    "Buyout firms themselves may be next to go. As many as 40 of the biggest 100 companies may collapse by 2011 as their debt- strapped assets default, according to a 2008 report by Boston Consulting Group Inc., which didn’t identify the firms in its study."

    [Edited Jan 28 2009]



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