In this episode, Joe Mantone is joined by West Riggs, head of equity capital markets at Truist Securities, who discusses IPO activity in 2024 and the outlook for 2025. West also touches on interest rate cuts and how the U.S. elections tend to impact the market. More S&P Global Content: •   Subscribe to our monthly M&A in focus newsletter •   Listen to a webinar on capital markets activity in H1 2024 •   See our latest news headlines 

Credits: •    Host: Joe Mantone •    Producer: Adam Kovalsky •    Published with assistance from: Carl Schmidt

On this edition of the Pipeline, an S&P Global Market Intelligence podcast, we speak with Michael Mufson, managing partner of the investment banking firm Mufson Howe Hunter. Many of the deals Michael's firm works on involve private equity. The absence of private equity has been a big reason for the downturn in M&A that started in 2022, but Michael sees that changing. The amount of dry powder in PE coffers along with the number of portfolio companies that PE needs to liquidate should serve as a catalyst for M&A, Michael said. But through the first half of 2024, M&A volumes have remained largely muted, especially in the middle market. I started off asking Michael about that. Here’s our conversation.

During recent earnings conference calls, executives from Evercore, Moelis and Lazard said interest rate cuts aren't the only driver that will push private equity firms to pursue transactions. The rise in private credit funds gives advisory-focused investment banks an opportunity to increase their exposure to the debt business.

About six to nine months ago companies were preparing to stay private longer, but now management teams are gaining confidence that they can execute a successful IPO, said Dave Stadinski, Piper Sandler's global co-head of equity capital markets.  A pickup in the IPO market would certainly be welcome by deal advisers because Stadinski notes the the current slowdown in the capital markets has been longer than the one that occurred around 2008 and the Great Financial Crisis. 

JMP Securities analyst Devin Ryan expects that 2023 will mark a trough year for M&A and 2024 can put investment banks on a path to acceleration in their advisory fee business. 

The IPO market has been extremely slow since the early part of 2022. The lack of activity has created some "pent-up supply" of high-quality companies that are ready to go public, according to Seth Rubin, head of US equity capital markets for Stifel Financial Corp. Rubin recently spoke with The Pipeline about the strategies some companies are taking to execute an IPO, the outlook for the market as a whole and the future of SPAC issuance.

The amount of time it takes to meet US pre-merger compliance requirements has the potential to skyrocket if regulators move forward with a rulemaking proposal. The Pipeline recently spoke with Kara Kuritz, a partner in Vinson & Elkins’ antitrust practice, to get a better idea on what the proposed changes entail and a bit of a history lesson on the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

While many banks are being unfairly painted with a broad brush, institutions will face tougher regulatory examinations and pressure on probability and that should ultimately lead to a strong rebound in bank M&A activity. Those views were delivered by members of the investment and advisory community during two panel discussions focused on bank liquidity that S&P Global Market Intelligence hosted on May 18. The panels featured Ben Azoff, partner at Luse Gorman; Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at BTIG; Bill Burgess, co-head of financial services investment banking at Piper Sandler; Greg Hertrich, head of U.S. depository strategies at Nomura; Jonah Marcus, partner and portfolio manager at Endeavour Capital; and Chris McGratty, head of US bank research at KBW. In the episode, we discuss the highlights of the panels with fellow moderator, Nathan Sovall, the head of S&P Global Market Intelligence’s financials research and the host of Street Talk, a podcast that takes a deep dive into the banking sector. The panelists offered their view of bank valuations, whether institutions should consider repositioning bond portfolios, takeaways from recent regulatory examinations and the outlook for M&A activity.

M&A activity has been slow, but Matt Edgar, founder of the recently launched Edgar Matthews & Co. LLC, said the landscape offers opportunities for a new investment bank.