September kicks off in style but M&A advisers aren’t ready to get their hopes up
After all the talk about how much hinged on September, for M&A lawyers the post-summer kick-off couldn’t have gone much better. Nine out of 10 economic indicators have been pointing north for the last month, the FTSE 100 last week broke back through 5,000 – marking a five-month revival – and this month has seen a string of notable bids. In particular, Kraft’s £10.2bn unsolicited offer for Cadbury’s, which threw up roles for Clifford Chance (CC) and Slaughter and May, was exactly the kind of deal needed to give the market a lift after nearly 15 months of strategic buyers sitting on their hands. Add in the joint venture talks between T-Mobile and Orange – CC again and Norton Rose – and it seems a growing number of trade buyers are calling the bottom of the market. This potentially clears the way for non-distressed M&A activity to revive after the enforced stasis since the collapse of Lehman Brothers a year ago.
