November 3, 2020
The Election’s Impact On M&A: What Do Dealmakers Think?
As Americans head to the polls today, Datasite’s recent survey on how dealmakers think the election will impact M&A is particularly timely. Here are some of the highlights:
– A majority (53%) of dealmakers surveyed said that the election had no impact on the timing of their transactions; 19% said they accelerated their timeframe for getting deals done, while 18% said they were deferring deals until after the outcome of the election had been decided.
– Over one-third of respondents (36%) expected that the level of deal activity would stay the same with a Biden victory, 23% said it would increase, and 25% said it would decrease.
– Nearly half of respondents (46%) expected that the level of deal activity would remain the same with a Trump victory, 30% said it would increase, and 11% said it would decrease.
Notwithstanding these results, most respondents thought that the biggest driver of deal activity over the next 6-12 months wouldn’t be the outcome of the election. Instead, 29% of dealmakers cited government stimulus in support of economic recovery from Covid-19 & the same percentage cited a safe and available Covid-19 vaccine or treatment as the most important factors in reviving deal activity. An additional 22% cited the relationship between the U.S. and China, while only 19% cited the election and the potential train wreck over its outcome as the most significant factor.
– John Jenkins