In a recent article in Global Finance, Howard Johnson, Managing Director in the M&A Advisory practice at Duff & Phelps, shared his outlook on the M&A market given the current economic environment, including the impact on various industries and how companies are adapting their balance sheets, supply chains and credit facilities to survive.
Howard comments, “Just before the crisis hit, S&P 500 companies had upward of $2 trillion in cash on their books; and this may be the saving grace in all this. Private equity firms are also flush with cash. So there’s roughly $1 trillion worth of dry powder sitting around.”
He further adds, “Those [cash-rich] companies will be ready to enter the M&A market with a lot of opportunistic buying. Smart acquirers will have the advantage of seeing a very quick transition from what was a seller’s market in 2019 to what will be a buyer’s market by the end of 2020.”
Read the full article here.