It’s halfway through October, so naturally members of the banking community are starting to ponder how they’ve measured up against competitors ahead of this year’s bonus round.

Anjali Piramal used Dealogic’s investment banking revenue data to map out where the banks are. Fees from M&A fell only 12% to USD 27bn in 2022 YTD despite dealmaking dropping around a third in value terms year-on-year.  Goldman Sachs held the top fee spot, with JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley in second and third place.

Of course, the fourth quarter is far from over, with much to play for in terms of dealmaking as we close out 2022.
Last year’s SPAC listing boom could support otherwise sluggish activity, with many of these blank cheque vehicles needing to find a merger partner in the coming months, unless shareholders postpone their capital deployment deadlines.

In October and November, SPACs holding USD 6bn are due to complete mergers. This could be the “calm before the storm” writes Troy Hooper, noting that 48 SPACs are due to execute mergers in December, while a colossal 285 entities holding some USD 81.25bn must – on current terms – de-SPAC by 1Q 2023.

Another hot M&A trend has been deals with an ESG component. Our European public markets editor Gustav Sandstrom, together with Judit Balogh, selected our top five ESG deals from September.

As climate concerns have intensified, zero carbon nuclear energy has become an increasing ESG play – and sits well within the trend towards defensive names in a febrile global market. Indeed, our largest deal announced in the last week was the USD 7.85bn bid for Westinghouse Energy, a US nuclear services business. Dusting off his Geiger counter in search of deals, Mark Druskoff explored the nuclear fusion side of the market in the latest edition of our podcast DealCast.

Meanwhile, Dane Hamilton writes that genetic medicine companies are attracting new investors even as the overall biotechnology sector faces a valuation downdraft. Staying in healthcare, HIG Capital has appointed William Blair to advise on the sale of Deenova, an Italian provider of advanced hospital services, writes Micaela Osella.

Our journalists have also unearthed chunky start-up opportunities and companies to watch as we look ahead to 2023 and beyond. Wong Ka-chun, Jessica Wong and Eva Ng in Hong Kong revealed Airwallex, an Australian cross-border business payments services provider, is expected to raise more than the planned amount from its Series E extension due to heavy inbound enquiries from institutional investors. Investors were eager to join the fundraise after Visa was said to participate, the report said.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the newsletter, as always please reach out with your deal tips, feedback or just to say hello.

Lucinda Guthrie

Executive Editor, Mergermarket

Lucinda.Guthrie@iongroup.com

News & analysis

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In this episode we’re finding out about fusion power and how it fits into the wider conversation about nuclear energy. Joining...

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