The European Merger & Acquisition Landscape – Surprising Shots In The Arm From Covid-19

[Apologies for the low quality recording]

In early 2020, as Covid-19 swept through Western Europe, stock markets tanked, the mergers & acquisitions (M&A) market froze and corporate valuations plummeted. Promptly, governments started imposing lock-downs and intervening massively through unheard-of financial support packages to prevent the total collapse of Western economies. As the year passed and stock markets recovered (and government budget deficits grew), sometimes reaching new record highs (both of them), the worst seemed to be behind us. But, how has the M&A market reacted? Was it possible for an entrepreneur to sell her business last year? Would her business be more valuable today or less? Will European M&A surge or retreat?

Speaker:

Emmanuel Antmann joined FDC in 2011 after spending six years at IXIS CIB, now Natixis, in Paris to develop Corporate Finance activities in the energy & infrastructure sector. Previously, he had spent eight years in London working in Anglo-Saxon investment banks, including Deutsche Bank and ING Barings, where he also advised energy and utility companies across Europe. Emmanuel has worked on a wide array of mandates spanning M&A, corporate reorganization, and financing, in particular in the decentralized power generation, especially from renewable energy sources, in the energy distribution and retail, in the maritime transportation & services. Since early 2019, an increasing share of the advisory assignments he has worked on have either a strong technology or digital angle. Emmanuel graduated from ESSEC Business School.