On July 22, 2022, Becca Chappell was quoted in the Financial Times Specialist on M&A activity during the first half of the year.
According to the article, the first half of 2022 showed significant numbers for global merger and acquisition activity, with 441 deals valued at over $100 million. Deal performance, however, struggled to “defy gravity” and has been dragged down by market volatility. Buyers underperformed the wider market by 4.8 percentage points based on share price performance during the first half of 2022, and M&A deals in 2022 are taking longer to complete compared to 2021.
Chappell said the 2021 M&A market was overheated in a way. “It was so hot that there was going to be some sort of slowdown coming,” she said. Chappell, who represents early-stage and large companies in inbound and outbound M&A work, said that there’s still capital floating around for investment, and, at the moment, it’s coming more from the private equity side.