JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s co-head of global mergers and acquisitions says it will be a short Christmas holiday for investment bankers, with global dealmaking resurgent as the year draws to its close.
Deals are rising across all regions and industries, Dirk Albersmeier said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. A “strong political desire” to create national champions in Europe is spurring consolidation in sectors including banking, he said. Cross-border transactions are being driven by healthcare, technology and industrials companies.
“It clearly won’t be a long Christmas break for M&A bankers,” Albersmeier said. “There are absolutely no signs of this pace slowing down.”
The value of global transactions has risen more than a third to $1.8 trillion since July, data compiled by Bloomberg show, in what has been a sharp recovery from the pandemic-hit first half. This week alone has seen S&P Global Inc. announce a $39 billion takeover of IHS Markit Ltd. — the year’s second-biggest deal — and Salesforce.com Inc. agree to buy Slack Technologies Inc. for $27.7 billion including debt.
Albersmeier said the proliferation of blank-check firms, or special purpose acquisition companies, has created a new and important group of buyers in the M&A market. Business magnates from across industries have raised a record amount via SPACs this year. While this has mostly been for hunting deals in the U.S., Albersmeier said the trend would become more of a theme in Europe next year.
“There’s clearly the risk of a certain imbalance between supply and demand, and that’s why we are now seeing SPACs looking outside of the U.S. for targets,” he said.
JPMorgan ranks third for global deal advice in 2020, trailing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, data compiled by Bloomberg show. It has landed roles on transactions including S&P Global Inc.’s IHS Markit Ltd. purchase, the 17.2 billion-euro ($21 billion) private equity takeover of Thyssenkrupp AG’s elevator unit and Morgan Stanley’s $13 billion acquisition of E*Trade Financial Corp.
