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UK Dealmaking Trends 2024 – The Return of Deals

In the wake of persistently low deal activity over the past two years, the dealmaking landscape is showing signs of change. As interest rates stabilise, inflation falls, and markets become less volatile, dealmakers are presented with new opportunities and challenges.

And it looks like change is inevitable. According to PwC’s 27th UK CEO Survey, one in five CEOs believe their companies will not be viable in the next 10 years if they stay on current paths, with organic change not sufficing. Acquisitions are increasingly viewed as the way forward, particularly when it comes to adapting technology and accelerating decarbonisation.

Here's a closer look at the trends expected for 2024:

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4 Reasons Why the UK has Deal Appeal

Political uncertainty in the UK has been a hot topic for the last year, particularly due to Brexit delays. This has had an impact on dealmaking throughout Europe in 2019, however, as we enter into 2020, greater optimism is expected with regards to deal activity.

Ready to explore your exit and growth options?

So, what are the reasons for this positive outlook, and what are the reasons for the UK’s deal appeal?

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Q1 2019 – Global Private Equity Deal Values Rise

Private equity has remained robust in the first quarter of 2019, with deal values in the first three months of 2019 showing a quarter-on-quarter rise of 3.6% to US $202.2bn.

Feel like it's a good time to sell?

On the flip side, buyout activity did drop marginally; however, take-private transactions conducted by private equity firms reached their highest Q1 value since 2013 – this was driven by the top two buyouts of the year so far – both made by US-based Hellman and Friedman. The private equity firm bought US software developer Ultimate Software Group for US $11.8bn (the fifth largest private equity buyout in the TMT sector on Mergermarket record), as well as making an offer of US $6.4bn for German real estate and automotive digital marketplace, Scout 24.

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Global M&A Activity 2019 – Deal Makers Optimistic for the Year Ahead

Refinitiv has announced the findings of its annual Deal Makers Sentiment Survey conducted by Greenwich Associates – a survey which provides a quantitative assessment of M&A related and capital market activity in the year ahead.

The survey has revealed that, despite market turbulence, reassurance has been offered in terms of M&A and capital market trends as the deal making professionals surveyed are cautiously optimistic for the year ahead.

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Dry Powder in Private Equity: A Struggle to Spend or a Welcome Resource?

Dry powder is currently a hot topic within the private equity industry because the levels of dry powder are at a record high since the financial crisis, with over $1T of committed capital available.

It is the term used for the amount of cash reserves or liquid assets used by an investor for investment purposes, but has not yet been deployed and there are a number of reasons why there is an excess. In part, there are surplus cash reserves as a result of the strength of fundraising – more cash risen, more cash reserves. However, this is a tale of two halves as private equity has not been spending as much in previous years – asset prices have been inflating and private equity firms are reluctant to pay a premium for these assets. In fact, there has been a year-on-year decrease in private equity funding from 2015 to 2017.

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Dry Powder in Private Equity – A Struggle to Spend or a Welcome Resource?

Posted on April 5, 2018 By in deals + Private Equity + Dry powder

Dry powder is currently a hot topic within the private equity industry because the levels of dry powder are at a record high since the financial crisis, with over $1 trillion of committed capital available.

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