UPPLY GLITCHES may be holding up transactions in much of the global economy but one area where purchasers can run riot is corporate acquisitions. Refinitiv, a data firm, tots up $5.1trn of deals this year, up 44% over all of 2020 and 21% over 2015, the previous peak. The reason for the boom? Low interest rates reduce financing costs while a recovering economy suggests profits to come. Exhausted bankers might like a dry stretch but worry about just how dry things can get. Prior booms in 2000 and 2007 ended not with a whimper but a bang.
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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Booming M&A is smashing records”