February 16, 2022
“Coming off a blockbuster year for M&A activity in Canada in 2021, dealmaking in 2022 will likely have a similar trajectory,” partner and co-head of the firm's M&A practice John Emanoilidis told Canadian Lawyer in an interview about Canada’s current deal making landscape.
Noting that this is among one of the most active global M&A markets in history, he added that he is “optimistic that 2022 is going to produce another strong year of dealmaking.”
As reported by the firm in the Q1 edition of the Torys Quarterly, 2021 saw some of the largest-value transactions in Canada with domestic deal values hitting a 10-year high of $93 billion. In addition, Canadian outbound M&A activity reached a five-year high in total deal count and aggregate transaction value.
“Canadian businesses who are undertaking strategic or transformative transactions underscore the confidence of boards and CEOs in this active deal environment,” John said.
“Many companies realized that they did better during the pandemic than they thought they would, so they took a look at the strategic landscape and asking themselves ‘How we can best position ourselves in the current landscape?’”
Read: Q1 Torys Quarterly: Canadian M&A outlook for 2022
However, forces in the overall business climate—labour constraints, inflation, supply issues— could still have a moderating impact on M&A.
“2022 may not turn out to be as strong as 2021, but there are many resilient businesses that will turn out to continue to be attractive targets,” John said, bearing in mind that firms may also try to do deals and lock in financing at attractive rates before we see a serious increase.
You can read more about our M&A work on our practice page.
Press Contact
Richard Coombs | Senior Manager, Marketing
416.865.3815