EY has recently released the 12th edition of its
annual Global Capital Confidence Barometer, a
biannual survey of more than 1,600 executives of companies in 54
countries, assessing various metrics in global mergers and
acquisitions. Although 2014 marked the single largest increase in
M&A since the financial crisis of 2008, for the first time in
five years, more than half of the respondents of the survey
indicated that they are planning acquisitions in the next year,
signalling recovered earnings and cash positions, or at the very
least, increased optimism regarding the trajectory of markets. The
survey points out that there are three concrete factors that have
together resulted in this global change: (1) an increase in the
number of market players, including start-ups; (2) an increase in
cross-border transactions that have been encouraged by fluctuations
in currency and oil prices; and (3) "disruptive"
innovation.
