International Corporate Finance

EDITO

JANDIRA SALGADO

MANAGING EDITOR

JEANNE YIZHEN YIN

ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR

Mania – that would be 2015’s Word of the Year in international corporate

finance, if such a competition existed. Indeed, since the beginning of 2015,

with a total value of $1.92 trillion – the highest in at least the past 20 years –

over 70 mega deals have made international press headlines. Faced with the

record high $4.7 trillion M&A deal value and an increase in the aggregate

value of venture capital deals for the third successive year, the media were

not short of adjectives like “historical” and “record-breaking”. They were

not the only ones getting excited, with investors delighted and corporates

full of confidence.

However, this euphoria masks some worrisome signs, such as the

disappointing performance of the IPO market (the worst since 2009), or the

$481 billion in withdrawn deals in the first five months of 2016, according

to Dealogic (yet another superlative as it was the highest level since the 2007

financial crisis).

In 2016, the deal atmosphere has clearly changed. Market volatility, along

with a troubling macro environment – from emerging markets to lower

commodities prices to geopolitical risks such as the Brexit, the threat of

terrorism and the election year cycle – is fueling a lot of uncertainty and

putting a major dampener on deal-making. HR changes, increasing

regulatory pressure and emerging technologies such as digital banking,

Bitcoin and Blockchain continue to impact financial professionals, whether

or not they are prepared.

Lawyers have not been spared from this whirlwind, but for them there are

advantages as well. Today nothing can stop the consolidation trend between

law firms. Globalization of deals and clients, aggressive competition, the

impact of the internet or the commoditization of certain kinds of work, the

reasons are many but there is one common point – every firm want to be

bigger, international and competitive. We’ve never seen so many big law

firms in the world, expanding at such a fast rate, which gives us the same

feelings of excitement as we have for the M&A market.

What’s next? Well, “?” seems to us a great choice for Symbol of the Year 2016

(again, if such a competition existed).

BOOM, BREAKDOWN, AND...?