Survey Says: Dealmakers Dour on Present, Optimistic on Future
Six weeks ago, I asked you to participate in our bi-annual survey of dealmaker attitudes and predictions, which is done in partnership with the Association for Corporate Growth. We got over 900 respondents, and official results will be released tomorrow morning. But since I’d hate for you to have to wait… Eighty-two percent of respondents expect M&A volume to increase over the next six months, with 72% percent predicting “moderate” growth and another 10% predicting “significant” growth. Only 1% expects any sort of decline.Such optimism is stronger than in a similar survey six months ago, but also may reflect negative feelings toward current conditions. Fifty-six percent of respondents said that current M&A conditions were “fair,” while 31% said “fair” and just 12% said “good.” The “excellent” option garnered just 1% of the vote.
