Take the ongoing debt crisis in Europe, add slowing growth in China, toss in the uncertainty of a presidential election in the United States, and finish it off with Congress tiptoeing to the edge of the fiscal cliff. Doesn’t sound like much of recipe for a solid year in dealmaking, does it? Given all the things stacked against the global economy in 2012, it might come as a surprise that the value of corporate transactions was up in both mergers and acquisitions and capital markets work. According to Thomson Reuters, the value of worldwide mergers and acquisitions in 2012 crept up 2 percent over the prior year, to $2.6 trillion; equity capital markets activity was up 1.5 percent, to $630.4 billion; and overall global debt capital markets dealmaking was up 10 percent, to $5.6 trillion, the highest mark since 2009. What did this rise in work, coming after a long slumber, mean for transactional lawyers? This year’s edition of our Corporate Scorecard has the answers.


Previous Corporate Scorecard reports :: 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

Acting Amid Uncertainty
By Ross Todd
In an unsettled economy, transactions lawyers had their hands full last year with spin-offs, divestitures, and junk bonds. All told, the value of corporate transactions was up in both mergers and acquisitions and capital markets work.

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