Global Dealmakers Pivot to Distressed M&A for the Next 12-24 Months
Restructuring Activities in U.S. to Focus Most on Bankruptcies, while EMEA Expects More Debt Financing, and APAC More Non-Performing Loans
ST. PAUL, Minn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#COVID19–Global dealmakers are shifting to distressed M&A in response to the difficult business climate brought on by COVID-19, according to data from a series of polls conducted by Datasite ®, formerly known as Merrill Corporation, the leading SaaS-technology provider for the global M&A community, and Debtwire, an information provider on the distressed debt and leveraged finance markets.
More than 300 dealmakers recently polled across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA), and Asia Pacific (APAC) said they expect to see more restructuring activity in the next 12-24 months, with the sentiment highest among U.S. dealmakers at 71% followed by EMEA, 70%, and APAC, 61%.
However, global dealmakers differ on what kinds of restructurings they expect to see most. Over the next 12-24 months, 50% of dealmakers in the U.S. said Chapter 11 bankruptcy would dominate restructuring, followed by out-of-court financing (24%), divestitures and carve outs (13%) and in-court liquidation (6%), while in EMEA, 36% of dealmakers predicted debt-financing to monopolize restructuring, followed closely by bankruptcy (31%), non-performing loans (14%), and divestitures & carve-outs (9%). In APAC, 31% of dealmakers said non-performing loans would dominate, followed by debt-financing (24%), bankruptcy/administration (19%), and divestitures & carve-outs (13%).
“Global dealmakers have moved beyond evaluating liquidity and immediate options and are now implementing strategies in response to the current environment,” said Rusty Wiley, CEO of Datasite. “Though their approaches may differ, dealmakers will need access to the right tools to ensure they are efficient and effective in their restructuring efforts.”
Tools that can load large volumes of data quickly were cited as the most useful by U.S. (37%) and EMEA (39%) dealmakers, while APAC dealmakers (30%) said machine intelligence around categorization and indexing of data is the most valuable tool. APAC dealmakers (25%) said loading large volumes of data was the second most important, whereas U.S. and EMEA dealmakers cited the ability to stage data rooms (30% U.S., 18% EMEA) as the second most useful tool for restructuring.
The poll results are based on responses from global M&A professionals in the Americas and Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, who tuned into Datasite webinar events between April 23rd and May 7th, 2020.
To learn more about the new data, please visit: www.datasite.com.
About Datasite
Datasite, formerly known as Merrill Corporation, is a leading SaaS provider for the M&A industry, empowering dealmakers around the world with the tools they need to succeed across the entire deal lifecycle. For more information, visit www.datasite.com
Contacts
Laura Powers
Datasite
212-367-6168
Laura.powers@datasite.com
Nicholas Koulermos
5W Public Relations
646-843-1812
Datasite@5WPR.com