mARCH 2012 88 Legal Transactions www.lawyer-monthly.com

What’s happening in the world of M&As and IPOs?

As we head further into the year, activity in the M&A and IPO worlds has remained steady, although is not as active as it perhaps was this time last year.

Despite Thomson Reuters M&A Legal Reviews for the full year of 2011 showing that worldwide M&A levels were up by 7% to $2.6 trillion, this year is thought by some to be somewhat different. According to KPMG International’s latest Global M&A Predictor, the first half of 2012 is set to be a slow period for M&A, with dealmakers expected to find themselves in difficult times. David Simpson, Head of Global M&A at KPMG and a partner in the UK firm, said: “The first half of 2012 – and most probably the rest of the year – will be a hard slog for dealmakers around the world. Serious economic wobbles, not least in the Eurozone, have dampened corporate appetite for deals. However, we are not predicting a cliff-style drop: deal activity is more than possible with corporate cash, private equity coffers and availability of target companies plentiful. The real test will be whether companies have the stomach to pursue deals.”

The deals reported in this month’s issue of Lawyer Monthly are varied and once again span a wide spectrum in terms of both industry and value. Featured deals this month include world famous confectioner Nestlé’s acquisition of a 60 per cent stake in Hsu Fu Chi, a leading manufacturer and distributor of confectionery products in China, as well as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) covered bond programme.

with the global M&A market having undergone an interesting journey in 2011, after just a few months of 2012, all we can do is watch and wait to see what this year holds for this type of activity across the world.