Transactions & Deals

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It’s a buyer’s market out there, but it takes two to tango, and in the M&A dealdance of 2023, many are finding partners hard to come by. The first half of 2023 saw global M&A deal volume continue last year’s slide after 2021’s record-breaking activity. Indeed, the $1.3 trillion in M&A deal volume for H1 was the second-lowest in the last 10 years, with only the first quarter of 2020 performing worse.

To get a seller to ‘yes’ in a deflated market such as 2023’s, suitors are having to sweeten the pot even as they search for a bargain, and in many cases this comes in the shape of an earnout provision.
Just as a professional athlete and the team seeking to employ them may turn to performance related contracts to get a deal done when there is a gap between each side’s valuation, in the world of M&A, the earnout is on the rise as a deal-facilitating solution which allows the seller to obtain future compensation should their former business go on to achieve certain financial targets, agreed upon in advance with the buyer.

It may not have been a vintage year for M&A, but some notable deals to get done in 2023 include Thales’ $3.6 billion purchase of cybersecurity vendor Imperva, Carrier Global Corp’s $13 billion deal for Viessmann Group’s climate solutions unit, and the $15 billion acquisition of Toshiba Corp by Japan Industrial Partners.
Private equity investment has traditionally come with a high entry barrier, but as funds cast their net wider for investment capital, they are becoming less picky about who can join the PE club. This so-called “democratization” of private equity is a smart move, as individual investors account for approximately half of all global wealth, yet only a small proportion of PE assets under management at present, according to a 2023 report by Bain Capital. Clearly, this offers PE funds an exciting growth vector. ESG remains a strong and growing component of M&A deals, with investors cottoning on to the fact that exit values five or ten years down the line will be boosted by having deals that are sustainable when scrutinized for their environmental, social and governance impact. ESG is destined to become ever more central to how investors evaluate M&A targets, as the market comes up with more sophisticated and reliable cost-benefit metrics.

The guide you are about to read covers key topics related to transactions across numerous sectors of the economy and features exclusive interviews with top names in the corporate world, as well as numerous rankings of leading law firms, investors, investment banks and consultancies, by country and practice area, to help you find the right professionals to help your business thrive.