Mega deals won't lead M&A rebound Under Trump

US BANKERS ARE rubbing their hands at an expected boom in dealmaking under a market-friendly President-elect Donald Trump next year. But scratch the surface and it is apparent that the mergers and acquisitions to come are far more likely to be among smaller companies. Mega deals won't lead the way.

- PAUL J DAVIES

Denis Coleman, the chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., summed up the optimism on Bloomberg TV last week. He expects the coming change of leadership at the Federal Trade Commission, one key antitrust regulator, to remove some of the headwinds to takeovers and help improve "CEO confidence and unlock more investment, more activity and provide a more favourable strategic backdrop."

However, Trump's populist brand of Republicanism retains a strong dislike of the power of big companies, embodied by his Vice-President-elect JD Vance. The incoming administration's pick to replace the staunchly progressive Lina Khan in running the FTC is a Republican lawyer called Andrew Ferguson, who joined the agency in April. His work suggests he's no friend of big tech, with his initial moves including a call for an investigation into censorship and bans of some users on social networks.

The antitrust division of the Justice Department, meanwhile, is set to be led by Vance's former economic policy adviser, Gail Slater, suggesting it too will maintain a tough line on corporate monopoly power.