Dealmakers continue to take recent market turmoil in stride. “I pretty firmly expect we’ll have a continuation in 2022,” said Porta Advisors chairman and partner Beat Wittmann on CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe this morning, speaking of M&A and IPO activity in spite of recent market shocks. It’s a sentiment shared by the broader dealmaker community, says KPMG in a newly released survey. We’ll dig into the latest.

One novel takeaway from the KPMG poll is the way acquirers plan to cope with rising valuations. Rather than walking away from transactions, companies are plowing forward with a focus on deals that can generate “extraordinary synergies.” Cost cutting is no longer sufficient to justify rich multiples; now buyers are looking for new revenue sources and transformation of operating models.

Just last week, we spoke to One Equity Partners’ Joseph Huffsmith about his firm’s recent acquisition of Norit Activated Carbon from Cabot. In addition to developing new product applications for organic growth, Huffsmith noted geographic expansion could be accomplished via acquisitions. That kind of creative approach to creating new revenue streams might be necessary to address persistently high valuations.

Private equity and corporates see no end in sight to the rise in deal valuations. Four out of five of respondents see higher multiples ahead in 2022, and more than a third peg that increase at 10 percent or higher. Moreover, the volume of investment banker pitches suggests that the fever pace of dealmaking could also continue, with a meager 7 percent of those polled saying volume could relax in the new year.

Brandon Zero