The key question at the present time is ‘what’s next for M&A’? Ever since the financial crisis, the M&A market has been strong, driven by a favourable economic backdrop, a large pool of liquidity and fundamental structural dynamics being driven by digitalisation and more recently by the move towards net zero. This strength in activity has only ever been seriously held back by the pandemic, which was – at least for M&A – a relatively short lived affair. At no time in the last decade have we faced as many headwinds as we do now, but how will the M&A market adapt?
Any reasonable commentator wouldn’t look too far beyond H1 when predicting which way the market will go. There’s too much uncertainty about how global events will play out, particularly the impact of sanctions and central bank reaction to rising inflation.
