Completed M&A volumes declined sharply in the 12 months of rapidly rising interest rates and falling company valuations that characterized the awards review period. But remarkable deals still got done and Morgan Stanley, the world’s best bank for advisory, worked on many of the most important ones, even though it finished below its two great rivals in the M&A volume league tables.
It featured on the year’s two most memorable transactions: Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the rescue of Credit Suisse by UBS. It did plenty of other work besides and now expects deal activity to pick up.
“The quality of businesses being sold has improved,” says Jan Weber, head of M&A, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Morgan Stanley. “At the same time, marginal deals are less likely to happen. Strong companies that are seasoned acquirers can approach targets as a safe port in a storm, while sellers are finally beginning to accept that in 2023 they are not going to get the same price they might have done in 2021.”
John