Executive Summary/Highlights Global M&A activity in Q2 2020 dropped to its lowest quarterly levels in more than a decade, as corporate dealmakers paused to weigh the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the responses of governments, businesses and consumers across the world, and many companies devoted all available resources to existence-preserving activities and not growth … Continued
Executive Summary/Highlights Global M&A volume was just US$730 billion in Q1 2020, a decrease of approximately 30% from Q4 2019 (US$1 trillion), approximately 25% from Q1 2019 (US$982 billion) and the lowest first-quarter global M&A volume since 2014 (US$657 billion). The decline in M&A volume relative to prior quarters was particularly pronounced in the United … Continued
The Coming Impact of ESG Recent months have seen institutional investors and other stakeholders, notably BlackRock and State Street, stressing the importance of comparable and decision-useful ESG disclosures by their portfolio companies. Such calls follow in the wake of growing interest among investors and other stakeholders in understanding and assessing the performance of companies based … Continued
*This article was originally distributed on January 21, 2020 In our annual forecast of the year ahead for Canadian competition and foreign investment review law, we evaluate how developments in 2019 will influence these areas of the law in 2020. We discuss below the main issues and trends to watch for this year. Continued Focus … Continued
*This article was originally distributed on January 23, 2020 Dear Clients and Friends, 新年快乐! We wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead! We ring in 2020 on a more positive note than where we started 2019. In the past year, a slowdown in manufacturing has weighed on economic growth both globally and in … Continued
The official Annual Report under the Investment Canada Act (ICA) for the fiscal year 2018-19 was released at the end of 2019. This document sets out various statistics and other noteworthy developments during that time frame (i.e., April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019) relating to the two review processes under the ICA: the “net … Continued
Executive Summary/Highlights Global M&A volume approached US$3.9 trillion in 2019, the third highest annual total in the last decade, despite increasing global economic and political headwinds. Strong economic growth, low interest rates, record amounts of private equity dry powder and the availability of corporate cash fueled global M&A in 2019. The boom was strongest in … Continued
Executive Summary/Highlights: In Q2 2019, global M&A volume reached US$1 trillion for the quarter and surpassed US$2 trillion for the year to date. Global M&A volume in 2019 is on pace to reach the US$4 trillion mark for the second consecutive year and only the third time in the last decade. The significant global deal … Continued
Executive Summary/Highlights: Global M&A volume, which exceeded US$4.0 trillion in 2018, continued at a similar pace in Q1 2019, reaching US$958 billion. Global M&A volume in the first quarter of the year has been primarily driven by record levels of deal activity in the United States. It was the most active first quarter for U.S. … Continued
Spotlight on Boards The ever-evolving challenges facing corporate boards prompt periodic updates to a snapshot of what is expected from the board of directors of a major public company—not just the legal rules, or the principles published by institutional investors and various corporate and investor associations, but also the aspirational “best practices” that have come … Continued
