Dealcast: The M&A Podcast

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Dealcast: The M&A Podcast Weekly podcast from the Mergermarket editorial team covering M&A, ECM and activism presented by Mergermarket

  1. 2D AGO

    Why ESG still drives returns in a ‘peak anti‑ESG’ era – Bayes Business School’s Prof. Michel Driessen, with Lucinda Guthrie

    After the Trump administration revoked the 2009 Endangerment Finding that underpinned federal actions curbing greenhouse gases in February 2026, there is a sense that we are reaching a peak of anti-ESG sentiment. However, Professor Michel Driessen, director of Bayes Business School’s M&A Research Centre and chair of Queen’s Tower Advisory, argues environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues should be treated as a substantial business risk – and ignored at business owners’ peril. ESG policies are more than just the “E”, though the term has become highly politicized, with a heavy focus on the environmental aspects. Companies have gone from greenwashing a few years ago to “green hiding” today, making it difficult for investors to assess the financial value of ESG measures that are going underreported. At a time when anti-ESG sentiment feels rampant, Driessen, co-author of Green Gold: How Sustainability Creates Deal Value, joins Mergermarket’s global executive editor Lucinda Guthrie to discuss the importance of these measures in M&A. In this episode of Dealcast, the guests explore questions including: When will anti-ESG sentiment start to cool? How can AI support ESG reporting? And why are the palm oil industry and Boohoo such a good case studies for the complexities of ESG beyond just environmental standards? Green Gold: How Sustainability Creates Deal Value will be available from 26 February.

    32 min

  2. FEB 12

    Antitrust enforcement increasingly a tool for domestic policymaking – Freshfields' Jenn Mellott with Reuben Miller

    "This merger of policy and antitrust is not specific to the US. It's a global phenomenon,” says Jenn Mellott, managing partner at Freshfields working in both Washington DC and Brussels. What began five years ago - with the Biden administration’s broadening of antitrust to consider more than just what is best for the consumer - has become an increasingly popular strategy around the world to serve policy goals. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have been utilizing antitrust as a political tool to address different policy issues from labor issues to domestic supply chain concerns. In this week’s Dealcast, Mellott, who works on competition cases both sides of the pond and has represented companies such as Adobe, Starbucks, and AstraZeneca, joins Mergermarket’s global chief regulatory editor, Reuben Miller. Together they discuss how political agendas, alongside geopolitical tensions, are impacting dealmaking and driving the need for a strong global narrative in large transactions. The episode explores how international deals could face speedbumps with national governments that may be misaligned on initiatives, like ESG. The conversation dives into which countries, like the UK and China, are using their regulatory bodies to address local or regional policy priorities. Mellott and Miller also discuss the role of state attorneys general in the US, and how they are impacting deals in the Trump 2.0 administration. This Dealcast explores questions like: what is "America First" antitrust? Which sectors are facing increased regulatory scrutiny? How does foreign direct investment screening influence transactions? And what is the role of lobbyists in getting deal approvals?

    38 min

  3. FEB 6

    The rise of the secondaries market – Moelis & Company’s Jeff Hammer and Paul Sanabria with Tom Cane

    “For the last three years, did you know -- that the secondary market’s been larger than the IPO market in terms of transaction volume?” that’s what Moelis & Company Managing Director Paul Sanabria said to showcase the immensely increased popularity of secondaries over the last couple of decades. The secondaries market of the 1970s looked quite different than it does today, originating then as an opportunistic solution for LP liquidity, with some of its early pioneers including VCFA, Landmark and Coller. In this week’s Dealcast, Tom Cane, Mergermarket’s funds editor is joined by Jeff Hammer and Paul Sanabria, Managing Directors at Moelis & Company’s private capital advisory group, where they help lead the firm’s global secondaries practice. They discuss how a niche, opportunistic corner of private markets has transformed into a sophisticated, multi‑strategy global capital market exceeding USD 220bn in annual volumes. The discussion charts the secondaries market journey from early LP‑driven trades, through the GP‑led restructurings of the 2010s, to today’s GP‑led “2.0” landscape defined by trophy assets, direct‑sponsor strategies, and a surge of new capital sources. The podcast also explores which direct sponsors are launching secondaries strategies like New Mountain and Warburg Pincus, as well as the traditional asset managers, like Blackstone, that are joining in. With answers to questions like: how does one define trophy assets? Are GP‑leds becoming standard exit paths alongside M&A and IPO? What could the next decade look like for secondaries? This episode is not one to miss.

    35 min

  4. JAN 29

    “Much more ambitious” M&A unlocked by antitrust vibe shift – A&O Shearman’s James Webber, with John West

    “You can be much more ambitious” in driving global M&A transactions given a vibe shift in agency approaches to merger control, says James Webber, Chemicals & Industrials sector lead and antitrust partner at A&O Shearman. Following the abandonment of the Biden-era neo-Brandeisian settlement in the US; an embrace of industrial strategy and resilience building at the European Commission (EC); and a growth-focused reset at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, dealmakers can now embrace the “art of the possible”. In this week’s Dealcast, Webber joins John West, Mergermarket’s Global Commentary Editor, to discuss how the EC’s impending shake-up of its merger guidelines and a proposed structural overhaul at the CMA will define M&A prospects in the coming year. With agencies having to balance traditional consumer welfare concerns against growth imperatives and geopolitical risk management, merger parties will need to lay groundwork with regulators, consider the social and industrial dimensions of their deals, and engage with customers as never before if they want to move from audacious announcements to closed deals. Taking in European petrochemicals consolidation, the continent’s beleaguered steel industry and telecommunications mergers, this episode is a window into how regulatory moves both sides of the Channel will frame dealmaker decisions as they seek to realise the M&A pipeline.

    37 min

  5. JAN 16

    Trump’s Venezuela gambit, Glencore/Rio Tinto megadeal illustrate resource scramble

    Dealcast host Julie-Anna Needham is joined by Head of Americas Energy Carlos Martinez to break down the Venezuela angle and the mining consolidation wave, while Global Commentary Editor John West examines the broader geopolitical backdrop – and why deep‑tier supply chain due diligence is fast becoming a critical value‑creation lever for corporates and private equity.

    35 min

  6. JAN 12

    OpenAI, SpaceX IPOs could help global ECM break records

    If successful, the initial public offers (IPOs) of OpenAI and SpaceX could help global equity capital markets (ECM) break records this year. In this week’s podcast, Sam Kerr, Mergermarket’s global ECM editor, sits with Dealcast host, Julie-Anna Needham, to discuss why the listings of the leading generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and spacetech companies are attracting so much attention. GenAI company OpenAI could seek to raise USD 60bn with a valuation for the largely debt-free company above USD 1tn. The developer of ChatGPT will test investor confidence in the sector, as well as providing feedback on fears of a bubble. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's SpaceX is another listing that would set valuation and capital-raise records, with bankers currently lining up to win the mandate. This episode also looks at increases in defense spending and new geopolitical conflicts, most recently in Venezuela, and threats to other regions could continue to bolster the industry.

    16 min

  7. 12/19/2025

    “We’re about year three” in seven-year M&A cycle – KPMG’s Liz Claydon, with Lucinda Guthrie

    “We’re about year three” in a seven-year M&A cycle that will see 2026 and 2027 sustain the astonishing deal growth seen this past 12 months. That’s the bold claim of Liz Claydon, global head of deal advisory and global sector lead for Life Sciences at KPMG. In this week’s Dealcast, Claydon joins Lucinda Guthrie, global executive editor at Mergermarket, to discuss how global CEOs have adjusted to technological and geopolitical disruption by seizing the opportunity to reshape their corporate footprints via transformational M&A. At USD 4.81tn, 2025’s global M&A haul has been underpinned by 70 megadeals worth more than USD 10bn. Claydon and Guthrie unpack how trade tensions have kicked off a race for pureplay scale – and explore the extent to which AI is not only driving deal planning, but also value creation execution. Taking in Jared Kushner’s flight from the Warner Bros. Discovery tussle, amid the biggest haul of North American listed dealmaking since 2007; the M&A financing environment in a world of rich valuations; and shifting investor sentiment towards inbound China dealmaking, this episode is a one-stop-shop for practitioners window dressing before year-end – and running the rule on next year’s pipeline.

    34 min

  8. 12/11/2025

    Paramount has simpler regulatory path to victory in Warner Bros battle

    Reuben Miller, Mergermarket’s global chief regulatory editor, joins Dealcast host Julie-Anna Needham to discuss the complexities of Paramount's bid, which is one of the largest hostile deals on record. How could Paramount's attorney could prove instrumental in pushing its bid forward?How could Netflix improve its regulatory position?Whoever wins, what will be the impact on the media landscape and everyday consumers?All this and more in this week’s Dealcast.

    22 min
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Dealcast: The M&A Podcast Weekly podcast from the Mergermarket editorial team covering M&A, ECM and activism presented by Mergermarket

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