Torys Quarterly featured in the Globe and Mail

Torys Quarterly piece “Canadian M&A 2020 outlook” and co-author John Emanoilidis were featured in the Globe and Mail. The article highlighted the state of play in Canadian M&A activity, with the overall value of transactions in the public market jumping 85 percent in 2019 to $96 billion.

John discussed how this growth and “brisk activity” was a surprise considering the political and trade uncertainties that “threatened to keep buyers on the sidelines”.

“Any one of them could have had a chilling effect on deals”, John said. “There’s just a large amount of money chasing deals, so we’re continuing to see robust M&A activity”.

The article discussed several other trends that affected M&A activity in 2019, including transactional activism, “where investors push back against corporate deal plans, and such corporate battles could be waged this year as well”.

“Activists will seize on process issues or disclosure deficiencies as a way to gain leverage”, John commented. “Certainly parties that are negotiating transactions need to be prepared for this, and it’s beneficial for all sides for a transaction to result from a robust process”.

Read our full Torys Quarterly article “Canadian M&A 2020 outlook”.

Check out the Globe and Mail feature here.