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00:00So put simply can this record piece of dealmaking continue. Well we're seeing the central bank governors talk about hiking interest rates. They were historically low which was one of the things that was driving the record volumes. Right. And you're also talking about more scrutiny from the administrations the Biden administration. The UK is looking more closely at deeds. We're seeing all that's going on in China. It was interesting this morning to look at the equity market indices and see how many of them are in the red because one of the other things that was driving deal volumes this year was the sky high valuations of companies that gave CEOs firepower to go out and do deals. Right. And make approaches for companies that you hadn't seen earlier. So that's one bit of it. But we've also seen these situations where companies from the likes of G.E. to JNJ to GSK in the U.K. to universal spinning of being spun off out of Wendy. So companies focusing more on their core and we could see a lot more of that next. Still for sure we could see active is driving volumes and just the kind of animal spirits that we've been talking about this year in the markets despite all that's going on in the world around us it doesn't seem like that enthusiasm has faded yet. Yeah I mean look we're certainly seeing more chop in these public markets. But it is interesting as you point out the public markets helping a lot here. That's also helped the IPO is to a large extent as well. What is the IPO market environment looked like. And I guess kind of the same question here. Is there concern that that can't continue on if we're looking at a more vulnerable market in the face of of Covid and the Fed IPO is had a record shattering year as well. And it was two things right. It was special purpose acquisition companies. So the facts that were listing and driving the What'd You Miss?. It was also private equity players that were looking at these markets and thinking well instead of just listing our companies why don't we list ourselves. So you have TPP now that's just come out and said if we've been talking about CVC in Europe you had. And that seems like it's likely to continue. When you look at how the stock prices have fared. But if you turn your eyes to China or do you turn your eyes to some of the tech listings. So whether that's D.D. whether that's bamboo or delivery do you know these very household technology names that had these high profile listings. They are now trading all below IPO price. And if they are trading below IPO price that might give a little bit of talk to other companies that are looking at the market. Sparked activity actually has cooled off in the US because of investor redemptions. You're seeing more scrutiny from the S.E.C. but we're seeing a lot more of that in Europe now. So as long as the billionaires and bankers can find targets I think that's going to continue at the height of the spike activity. One of my sources told me my dog can list a. I don't think that's the case yet. But there is still enough enthusiasm. Yeah I'd be a very well-bred dog. I mean look if there's enthusiasm for a dog based crypto why not a dog base back then. You also mentioned activist investors as well. To what extent have we seen them influencing deal making. We are seeing them in Europe. We've been talking about them a lot for nearly a decade. This year it seems like they've had some high profile hits. Right. And that is coming also in the US. You saw what Exxon. What happened with DAX on an engine here. We've seen Blue Bell in Danone. We've seen Elliot take on GSK some of these really storied names whether that's Shell in the Netherlands. We are seeing activists come in. They are you know and they're coming into situations where investors are unhappy maybe and they're pushing for change. They're driving dealmaking to an extent. We think that's going to continue. And the thing is when the activist drive a company to spin off or carve out its asset you have private equity waiting on the sidelines which huge levels of cash and ready to go out and buy these assets. Right. So it seems like that mix for deals is definitely here to stay.

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Record Year for Global M&A Deals

Global deal making is in the middle of an historic boom with volumes set to top $5 trillion for the first time ever. That’s the highest level of M&A since right before the financial crash in 2007. Bloomberg’s Ruth David reports on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Europe.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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