Debt Dealmakers Bet on M&A Revival to Fuel $1.3 Trillion Year
- Bristol Myers Squibb plans to use debt markets for Karuna buy
- Issuance next year hinges on return of dealmaking: Citigroup
So far, there’s a pipeline of at least $250 billion of announced M&A transactions that could in part be funded in the debt markets next year.
Photographer: Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty ImagesBankers in the US debt capital markets are optimistic that a pickup in mergers and acquisitions next year, along with lower borrowing costs, will induce more lucrative blue-chip bond sales.
Dealmaking has suffered the worst year for transactions in a decade as private equity sat sidelined and geopolitical tensions intensified. But deals such as Bristol Myers Squibb’s purchase of neuroscience-drug developer Karuna Therapeutics Inc. and Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s acquisition of CrownRock LP are giving investment-grade syndicate desks confidence that next year could see a return to buyout funding that once dominated their calendars.