The Pipeline: M&A and IPO Insights

During recent earnings conference calls, executives from Evercore, Moelis and Lazard said interest rate cuts aren't the only driver that will push private equity firms to pursue transactions. The rise in private credit funds gives advisory-focused investment banks an opportunity to increase their exposure to the debt business.

About six to nine months ago companies were preparing to stay private longer, but now management teams are gaining confidence that they can execute a successful IPO, said Dave Stadinski, Piper Sandler's global co-head of equity capital markets.  A pickup in the IPO market would certainly be welcome by deal advisers because Stadinski notes the the current slowdown in the capital markets has been longer than the one that occurred around 2008 and the Great Financial Crisis. 

Bill Curtin, global head of the M&A practice at the law firm Hogan Lovells, joined The Pipeline podcast and spoke about how dealmakers are executing transactions in the current environment. One of the headwinds slowing deals of different sizes is increased scrutiny from regulators. But Curtin said companies are factoring in the additional hurdles and pursuing transactions in part because deals help acquirers keep up with the latest technology trends. Curtin also noted that joint ventures have become more common during the recent M&A downturn.

JMP Securities analyst Devin Ryan expects that 2023 will mark a trough year for M&A and 2024 can put investment banks on a path to acceleration in their advisory fee business. 

The IPO market has been extremely slow since the early part of 2022. The lack of activity has created some "pent-up supply" of high-quality companies that are ready to go public, according to Seth Rubin, head of US equity capital markets for Stifel Financial Corp. Rubin recently spoke with The Pipeline about the strategies some companies are taking to execute an IPO, the outlook for the market as a whole and the future of SPAC issuance.

The amount of time it takes to meet US pre-merger compliance requirements has the potential to skyrocket if regulators move forward with a rulemaking proposal. The Pipeline recently spoke with Kara Kuritz, a partner in Vinson & Elkins’ antitrust practice, to get a better idea on what the proposed changes entail and a bit of a history lesson on the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

Reduced valuations have many potential buyers wanting to purchase their preferred targets at lower multiples, and the proposals are leading to debates inside the boardrooms of would-be sellers.

While many banks are being unfairly painted with a broad brush, institutions will face tougher regulatory examinations and pressure on probability and that should ultimately lead to a strong rebound in bank M&A activity. Those views were delivered by members of the investment and advisory community during two panel discussions focused on bank liquidity that S&P Global Market Intelligence hosted on May 18. The panels featured Ben Azoff, partner at Luse Gorman; Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at BTIG; Bill Burgess, co-head of financial services investment banking at Piper Sandler; Greg Hertrich, head of U.S. depository strategies at Nomura; Jonah Marcus, partner and portfolio manager at Endeavour Capital; and Chris McGratty, head of US bank research at KBW. In the episode, we discuss the highlights of the panels with fellow moderator, Nathan Sovall, the head of S&P Global Market Intelligence’s financials research and the host of Street Talk, a podcast that takes a deep dive into the banking sector. The panelists offered their view of bank valuations, whether institutions should consider repositioning bond portfolios, takeaways from recent regulatory examinations and the outlook for M&A activity.

M&A activity has been slow, but Matt Edgar, founder of the recently launched Edgar Matthews & Co. LLC, said the landscape offers opportunities for a new investment bank.

M&A activity was slow in 2022, and the start of 2023 hasn't been much better. What will it take to get the investment banking businesses going again? We talk with RBC Capital Markets analyst Gerard Cassidy about that very topic.