Strategic Alternatives

RBC Global Energy’s Nick Woodruff and Tim Perry discuss the trends shaping the landscape of commodities, energy, and infrastructure investments coming out of RBC’s 2024 Energy, Power & Infrastructure Conference (EPIC) in New York.

This year has seen a pick-up in equity activity across healthcare, with a wider range of firms showing promise for value creation, and a stronger investor appetite for a pipeline of private companies that are set to go public. RBC’s John Kolz, John Hoffman, and Jason Levitz met at this year’s RBC Capital Markets Global Healthcare Conference to discuss the latest indicators from investors and corporates.

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Wil Snape-Rogers, Executive Director, and Danielle Hundt, Chief Program Officer, of Play Rugby USA, join Vito Sperduto to discuss how they are using the power of sport to help young people flourish—both mentally and physically.

External forces are weighing heavily on energy markets in very different ways. While enforcement of merger competition rules puts strain on M&A deals, AI advances offer potential for both increased demand and business efficiencies. RBC Global Energy’s Nick Woodruff and Tim Perry consider the likely effects on the industry with host Vito Sperduto.

Oil and gas markets have reached a low- or no-growth business model, yet recent months have produced a surge in M&A activity not seen for a generation. Tim Perry and Nick Woodruff, of RBC’s Global Energy team, join Vito Sperduto to take the temperature of the sector and analyze the current state of energy valuations.

John Kolz, Global Co-Head, Equity Capital Markets, Paul Betts, Managing Director, M&A, Europe and Beatrix Pratte-Ness, Associate, M&A, Europe, explore key themes shaping private placement transactions across Europe, and the interplay between private and public markets and M&A activity.

Late 2023 saw a pick-up in equity capital markets activity in financial services. Insurance and business development corporations show particular promise for 2024, while there is keen investor appetite for a pipeline of alternative asset managers set to go public. RBC’s J.T. Deignan, MD and Head of Real Estate and Financial Institutions Equity Capital Markets, and Neil Chawhan, MD, Insurance Investment Banking, take a look ahead.

After the tech IPO drought of 2023, what is the state of the market this year? Do software and AI companies have a path to go public? Jesse Chasse, MD and Head of Technology, Equity Capital Markets at RBC, joins Dan Nathan on the Okay, Computer podcast to analyze the prospects for a market revival.

Looming elections are likely to be a barrier to M&A deal activity beyond September. But deal activity across non-banking areas of the sector remains robust, and attendees at RBC Capital Markets’ Financial Institutions Conference suggest a positive sentiment. Vinnie Badinehal, Head of Financial Institutions, and Jason Braunstein, Head of Financial Institutions M&A, assess the sector’s progress.

With fewer, more gradual interest rate cuts than expected now on the cards, what does the remainder of 2024 have in store for financial sector M&A? And how will the regulators’ evolving response to proposed deals affect the banks’ appetite? Vinnie Badinehal, Head of Financial Institutions, and Jason Braunstein, Head of Financial Institutions M&A, join to assess the sector’s mood.