In this episode of S&C Critical Insights podcast series, S&C partner Frank Aquila discusses the current landscape of Mergers & Acquisitions and looks ahead to the rest of 2019 and 2020. 
 
The geopolitical climate—characterized by anxiety over Brexit, and trade and tariff wars—has had a significant impact on deal-making. Frank Aquila provides insight into specific regional trends, as well as other more global patterns, including a drop in deals within Asia and Europe and a nearly frozen U.K. market. In Asia, China has tightened its outflow of capital, while Japanese companies are looking outside their borders, specifically focusing on the U.S. However, in the EU, nationalist tendencies, like other places around the globe, have also led to a contraction of deals. Ultimately, U.S. M&A activity, especially in regards to mega-deals, has been the main driver of M&A activity.
 
Along with global trends, this episode features Frank’s discussion of private equity markets and industries seeing greater activity, such as financial institutions, healthcare, energy and power, technology, and focuses on retail and its seismic ripple effect on real estate, labor and other sectors.

Frank also gives insight into the most pressing challenges currently faced by corporate boards, namely, uncertainty. He foresees higher rates of consolidation and regulatory review and emphasizes that, owing to the staffing changes that are likely to occur at the DOJ and FTC in the near future, people will want to get the many deals in the pipeline done before that happens. 

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