After so many years of cheap debt, the end of this M&A wave was always going to be bumpy.

Dealmakers at our Chicago event were already talking about a shift to a buyer’s market last week. Macro themes compounding this message have been hard to ignore this week, with the UK taking centre stage.

The pound has slumped to an all-time low against the US dollar, the Bank of England is spending £65bn in government bonds to stabilise UK pension funds, and interest rates are on the rise.

Mergermarket’s John West reflected on how dealmaking following the 2016 Brexit referendum, including Softbank’s swoop on ARM Holdings, could provide clues on what’s in store for UK M&A following this week’s events.

Min Ho, Maryna Irkliyenko and Charlie Taylor-Kroll were first to scoop that sponsors including EQT and Permira are circling in one of France’s most hotly contested tech auctions, A2MAC1.

In the US, Bhavna Kaul and Rachel Stone, reported Sphere has mandated advisors for a sale. And Bob Chiarito interviewed employee software company Atlas Technology’s CEO on M&A plans after a USD 200m fundraising.

In Asia, Wong Ka-Chun and Eva Ng revealed Cold Storage warehouse operator Metcold has been put up for sale.

On the regulatory side, Luuk de Klein from our analytics team wrote that 17 out of 25 deals subject to scrutiny from the Committee for Foreign investment in the US (CFIUS) between 2017 and 2022 had a Chinese acquiror.

To sum up the mood for the week, our “Boom and Gloom? European M&A Outlook 2023” with CMS interviewed 330 global dealmakers on their views for the year ahead. Some 88% of respondents were considering M&A and, of course, the biggest buyside driver of activity is expected to be undervalued targets.

And finally, Tuesday is a big day for events next week. It’s not too late to register for next week’s Mergermarket Switzerland event. This is one of my favourite events of the Mergermarket calendar. For those of us in London on that day, we have the British Private Equity Awards. The shortlist is available here.

Lucinda Guthrie

Executive Editor, Mergermarket

Lucinda.Guthrie@iongroup.com

News & analysis

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