Eric M. Rosof is a partner focusing on financing for corporate transactions at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. This post is based on a Wachtell Lipton memorandum by Mr. Rosof, Joshua A. Feltman, Gregory E. Pessin, and Michael S. Benn.
Last year’s robust acquisition financing market helped drive the headline-grabbing deals and record volume of M&A in 2015. At the same time, credit markets were volatile in 2015 and appeared to have shifted fundamentally as the year went on—and with them, the types of deals that can get done and the available methods of financing them. U.S. and European regulation of financial institutions, monetary policy, corporate debt levels and economic growth prospects have coalesced to create a more challenging acquisition financing market than we’ve seen in many years. As a result, 2016 is likely to be a year that demands creativity from corporate deal-makers, and where financing costs, availability and timing have significant influence over the type, shape and success of corporate deal-making.
