NEW YORK, Dec. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Participants at
The Deal Economy event, an annual predictive conference on mergers
and acquisitions hosted by The Deal, a business unit of TheStreet,
Inc. (NASDAQ:TST), were presented with an optimistic forecast for
global M&A activity in the coming year.
While some panelists warned that political uncertainty and trade
tensions could dampen activity, most said they expect M&A to
show continued vitality in 2017, particularly in the U.S., thanks
to resurgent economic growth fueled by tax reform, new
infrastructure spending and the repatriation by U.S. corporations
of foreign earnings under policies enacted by President-elect
Donald Trump and a Republican
Congress.
Jim Cramer, TheStreet, Inc's
founder and host of the CNBC's "Mad Money," identified 10 companies
ripe for acquisition in his keynote address — including technology
companies Advanced Micro Devices, Xilinx, Marvell Technology, and
Cypress Semiconductor; energy companies Apache Corp. and National
Oilwell Varco; homebuilder KB Home; regional bank People's United
Financial; and auto and aerospace suppliers Advance Auto Parts and
Arconic.
"Every one of these deals should be done," Cramer said.
On a panel discussing the outlook for regulation, Delaware
Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo Strine expressed concern that
wholesale efforts to tear up trade pacts and roll back regulation
could spark political backlash and complicate cross-border
dealmaking.
However, most experts said they expected the benefits of the new
U.S. political alignment to outweigh such concerns. Global Market
Advisors chief strategist and former Trump campaign adviser
Jonathan Galaviz described the
potential repatriation by U.S. companies of foreign earnings as
"one of the biggest one-time inbound inflows of capital that
America has ever seen." He and other panelists said much of the
capital would go into new deals as well as stock repurchases.
Still, most of the panelists said they did not foresee M&A
dollar value next year to approach the record set in 2015, but
instead said they expected the current emphasis on mid-size deals
to continue.
"Everybody asks, 'Is 2015 the high water mark?'," McKinsey &
Co. senior partner Michael Park
observed during a presentation of his firm's dealmaking research.
"I'd like to propose a possibility that in this environment we're
going to see more M&A, not less." But Park insisted that the
most successful deals going forward would focus on revenue growth
rather than cost synergies and be transformative, disruptive or
both, even if they fell short of megadeals.
The conference also heard key executives from
Honeywell, Siemens, Microsoft and
Wal-Mart explain how their companies approach M&A,
including divestitures that often precede or follow acquisitions,
and a panel on corporate governance identify ways to improve
shareholder relations and governance when activist investors
loom.
Over lunch, award presentations were made to 18 companies for
excellence in overall M&A strategy, including choice of
targets, deal execution and impact on stock performance. The
Deal's "Most Admired Dealmakers" were selected by a closed-panel of
leading deal practitioners.
Supporting underwriters for The Deal Economy event included EY,
Pepper Hamilton LLP, McKinsey & Company, Morrison &
Foerster LLP, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Latham & Watkins
LLP, Donnelley Financial Solutions and Seal Software.
The Deal Economy, Predictions & Perspectives for 2018, will
take place on Thursday, November 30,
2017. For sponsorship and speaking inquiries about next
year's event, please contact Emily
Newman (212-321-5565; enewman@thedeal.com).
ABOUT THE DEAL
The Deal (www.thedeal.com) provides actionable, intraday
coverage of mergers, acquisitions and all other changes in
corporate control to institutional investors, private equity, hedge
funds and the firms that serve them. The Deal is a business unit of
TheStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ: TST, www.t.st), a leading financial news
and information provider. Other business units include TheStreet
(www.thestreet.com), which is celebrating its 20th year
of producing unbiased business news and market analysis; BoardEx
(www.boardex.com), the leading relationship mapping service of
corporate directors and officers; and RateWatch
(www.rate-watch.com) which supplies rate and fee data from banks
and credit unions across the U.S.
Contact: Nicole Harris,
212.321.5567, nicole harris at thestreet.com
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SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.