Foreign Investment

Despite frequent frictions in recent trade relations, the growing scale of the economic relationship between the world’s two largest economies—the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States—has given rise to an ever-greater number of civil and commercial disputes. For decades, the common assumption among American lawyers was that enforcing a U.S. court judgment … Continued

Cross-Border M&A Guide Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz recently published the 2023 edition of their Cross-Border M&A Guide, which is available here. This Cross-Border M&A Guide covers the key U.S. legal considerations not only for acquisitions of U.S. companies by non-U.S. companies (or “inbound” M&A transactions), but also for acquisitions of non-U.S. companies, including under … Continued

Following record-breaking M&A activity in 2021, M&A volume over the 12 months ending December 31, 2022 reverted toward the mean, with a significant slowdown in the second half of the year. Global M&A volume in 2022 was US$3.6 trillion, down from US$6.2 trillion in 2021 and closer to the annual average of US$4.3 trillion over the prior 10-year period.

Executive Summary/Highlights Global dealmaking slowed significantly in Q3 2022, reflecting current macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainties and challenges. Nevertheless, many deals got done and many of the traditional drivers of M&A point to meaningful deal flow in Q4 and beyond. Global M&A volume was US$692 billion in Q3 2022, a 37% decrease from Q2 2022 and … Continued

The past year generated substantial interest in the operation of the Investment Canada Act (ICA), especially the national security review process, against the backdrop of changes in government policy that purport to articulate a more expansive view of Canada’s national security interests. We expect foreign investment review to remain an issue of public and political concern in … Continued

Executive Summary/Highlights Global M&A volume was more than US$5.8 trillion in 2021, the highest annual volume on record. Each of the four quarters of 2021 was one of the top six most active quarters by dollar volume since the beginning of 2010. In addition to a legion of private equity funded transactions, including such major … Continued

*Originally distributed on December 31, 2021 The second half of 2021 was an extraordinary time for Chinese companies seeking to list overseas, as well as for other relevant market participants. The Didi incident further deepened the anxiety and “mistrust” by US securities regulators on the risks associated with investing in China-based companies or that have … Continued

Executive Summary/Highlights The boom in global M&A activity reached new heights in the third quarter of 2021, resulting in a record volume of global M&A through the first three quarters. M&A activity has surged on the back of pent-up demand for deals following the Covid-19 shutdown in the early part of 2020 and the subsequent … Continued

Executive Summary/Highlights Global M&A volume reached record highs in Q1 2021. As Covid-19 vaccines became more widely available and economies reopened, M&A volume reached the largest first quarter deal volume on record since records started being kept in 1980. In Q1 2021, global M&A volume was US$1.34 trillion, a 1.7% increase from Q4 2020 (US$1.32 … Continued

Global M&A activity in 2020 was a remarkable tale of two halves, with historically low M&A volume in the first half of the year, especially in the months following the initial outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, followed by an explosion of activity in the second half of the year.