As deal makers prepare to head down to New Orleans for one of the biggest merger conferences of the year, many will do so with a spring in their step.
The vast majority of bankers and lawyers surveyed by the Brunswick Group, a public relations firm, believe 2013 will mean more deals than last year.
So strong is the optimism among those advisers that nearly all - 97 percent, to be exact - expect that to be true in North America. About 82 percent believe more mergers will be struck worldwide this year than in 2012.
That is the highest show of confidence in the deal-making spirits in the six-year history of Brunswick’s survey, and it suggests that the machers at the Corporate Law Institute, hosted by Tulane University, will be ready to hoist a hurricane glass to their good fortunes.
It was only four years ago that one speaker, Tim Ingrassia of Goldman Sachs, lamented having to write off the period between mid-2007 and 2009. Now, it appears, deal makers are salivating over busier times putting together strategic mergers and leveraged buyouts.
What is behind the higher hopes for the coming year It is largely a function of more confident chief executives and boards, according to the survey, with improving economic conditions and the continued abundance of cheap financing the next most-cited reasons.
The availability of low-cost debt also led 69 percent of North American advisers to say that more deals will be paid for entirely with cash, the fourth year in a row for the survey.
About 89 percent of respondents based in North America think that bigger leveraged buyouts - perhaps along the lines of Dell Inc.’s $24.4 billion sale - will be on the rise in 2013.
About 71 percent of advisers based in North America surveyed believe that the deals will be done within the continent, as opposed to transborder takeovers. About percent of correspondents believe that foreign bidders for North American assets will come from Asia than anywhere else, continuing a yearlong trend.
Latin America has become more of a hotbed of activity as well, with 11 percent of those surveyed believing the region to produce the most acquisitive companies. That is nearly triple the 4 percent of respondents who believed the same thing last year.
The busiest sector is expected to be consumer goods and retail, according to 31 percent of respondents, followed by technology and then energy.
For more on what deal mavens are thinking, DealBook will be on hand for all the bons temps at the Tulane conference.
