COVID-19 has slowed M&A activity significantly, last week was the first week since September of 2004 where no M&A deals worth over $1B were announced.
“We anticipate that there may be fewer signed deals announced this quarter as parties take longer to work through the impact of the COVID-19 situation. However, where parties have completed underlying due diligence processes and where there remain strong fundamentals, we do expect to see a number of these deals to come back online.”
Robert Wright, law firm Baker McKenzie’s Asia-Pacific M&A group
The decrease comes as formerly active companies in the market make efforts to conserve cash and drawdown credit lines to survive the halt in business.