The game has changed for the UK's mergers and acquisitions

THE pandemic brought a perfect storm in the mergers and acquisitions world and made a lot of business owners rethink their priorities.

- Emma Keeling

Many realised there was more to life than building the balance sheet and that they actually rather enjoyed spending time with their family and friends while predictions of a stuttering economy led them to consider if they had the stomach for another fight.

On the other side of the table, private equity firms had money stored up over Covid and were eager to spend it.

Globalscope, a worldwide family of M&A firms specialising in middle-market transactions (of which Corbett Keeling is a member), closed 203 deals with a combined value of $20.8 billion in 2022 — the highest revenue tally in the network’s 35-year history.

But, as we head towards the second half of 2023, the gloomy predictions have taken hold and while the International Monetary Fund has forecastBritain’s economy will not do as badly as thought this year, they say it will have the worst growth in the G7 group of advanced nations in 2023 and 2024.