The Deal's Matt Miller took a quick dash around the world with panelists at The Deal's M&A Outlook 2009 conference and touched briefly on some countries and regions of special interest in terms of their own dealflow: China, India, Russia and Western Europe.
Miller asked if China is still interested. Nick Rees, co-managing partner, corporate and M&A group, Linklaters LLP, thinks the underlying driver with Chinese investments is its access to our technology and other resources. And China is cash-heavy, so we'll see deals.
Steven Baronoff, managing director and head of global M&A for Merrill Lynch & Co., said China will continue to learn how to do deals in U.S. "They will try to do deals in less politically sensitive industries. They're getting better at dealmaking."
Miller noted Indian megadeals. He asked whether deals such as the ones coming out of Tata Group would continue.
Paul Beecy, a Grant Thornton LLP partner, said: "On the deals we've seen, there was much more tech-driven dealmaking over the past couple years. Now it's getting U.S. brands and services businesses. How can they break out those businesses and set them up in India? What should they maintain and cut from the U.S. business and set up in India?"
Regarding Russia, Baronoff said deal activity in the past was driven by oligarchs. Now you will see more of a drop. Beecy noted they have oil, but tech deals dropped.
Then there's Western Europe. Along with Canada, Western Europe dominated cross-border M&A. Baronoff acknowledged there's a pause, but deals are happening. He mentions InBev SA's acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Cos. He joked: "I don't know about you, but I think beer is a strategic asset."
He also noted that most withdrawn deals have to do with pricing. The phrase "
opportunistic bid" is getting thrown around a lot. -
Baz Hiralal
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