Milbank LLP Global Corporate/M&A partner Iliana Ongun discussed M&A outlook for the second half of 2023 with Law360 in the article “Can M&A Bounce Back After Dismal First Half of 2023?”
The first half of 2023 saw some of the lowest total global M&A values seen in the last ten years due to many factors, including a challenging financing environment, valuation gaps between buyers and sellers, and intense regulatory scrutiny, among others. After the SPAC boom sent swarms of startups into the public markets, things didn't work out too well for many of them. Private equity firms are well aware of this, and they're on the hunt to scoop these often tech-focused companies up, said Ms. Ongun. "What we're seeing now, and what I'm expecting to see in the second half of the year, is a continued uptick in the number of take-privates," Ms. Ongun added. "The SPAC boom set up an environment where some of these companies went public when it didn't necessarily make sense for them to be public, and now the options to continue to access the public markets are quite limited," she said. Even some companies with good fundamentals and strong management teams have found that the public markets haven't served them well, Ms. Ongun said. Values plummeted post-IPO after waves of investors redeemed shares and public demand waned, she explained. "True believers in tech are looking for bargains, and there are definitely bargains to be had in this part of the market," she said.
Read the full article “Can M&A Bounce Back After Dismal First Half of 2023?” here. A Law360 subscription is required.
