Significant amount of “dry powder”
Recent fundraising means that Private Equity houses have significant funds to deploy — which is being further fueled by substantial leverage available from high street banks, debt funds, and other non-traditional lenders. For good assets, this means that competition is fierce, processes are broad, and very seller friendly. But buyers are becoming nervous that we are close-to or at the top of the market for this cycle and are increasingly reluctant to invest time and money in wide auction processes unless they have an excellent angle. This growing nervousness paired with fierce competition has resulted in a squeezed, “sprint to the finish line,” pace when working on the buy-side of transactions, and faster, more limited scope sell-side processes with shorter planning cycles.

Political uncertainty
Driven by Brexit, fresh fears that the budget dispute between Brussels & Rome will trigger a € crisis, and most recently, the Gilets Jaunes protests in France, political uncertainty and its ability to impact the wider macro-economic environment appears to be unsettling some in the debt community. Some processes are beginning to wobble, fail or be shelved entirely on fears that the pendulum may have swung too far in the direction of sellers. Before the summer, we saw a lot of people trying to pre-empt processes, but this no longer seems to be happening — even for eagerly anticipated assets.

Increasing Corporate Interest
In the corporate space, we’re experiencing increasing interest from listed corporate clients who are looking for a credible alternative to the Big 4. Concerns about audit failures, conflicts of interest, and KPMG’s recent announcement that it will no longer provide non-audit services to its FTSE 350 clients are likely to only increase this trend.

Global Capital Flows
Capital continues to move cross-border, although the increased negative rhetoric from the Trump Administration — and the Chinese capital controls introduced by Beijing in 2016 — has slowed the flow of Chinese money into Western Europe.

Budget Dispute
If Rome and Brussels are unable to compromise on the Italian budget deficit — something made less likely by President Macron’s decision to blink in the face of public protest to his green fuel tax rises — it may spark the next phase of the Euro crisis.

Brexit Negotiations
As the deadline for Brexit edges inexorably closer, those inside the Westminster bubble remain horribly deadlocked. Although this may all turn out to have been some “cunning plan” if Theresa May, emboldened by surviving the vote of no confidence forced by her hardline Brexit-supporting “colleagues,” returns with major concessions on the Irish backstop arrangements, we suspect that appetite for £ denominated assets will slow — at least for those with $ or € denominated funds — as why invest now when the assets may be 10 to 15% cheaper in real terms in three month’s time?