In 2021, there were over 4000 deals done in the healthcare sector globally (up 23% from 2020), making it one of the most active industries in terms of M&A. There’s no doubt the sector is booming, fuelled, in part, by Covid-19 and significant global megatrends. Here, Rebecca Zhu, Managing Director at Translink Corporate Finance China, and Jens Borelli-Kjær, Partner at Translink Corporate Finance Denmark, unpack trends, growth drivers, and the implications for M&A.
In the year 2050, what will the world of industrials and manufacturing look like? Will existing players still dominate the market or will new entrants with dynamic offers win market share? A new report by Translink Corporate Finance in partnership with the Institute of Futures Research (IFR), explores four plausible futures that will pose distinctive opportunities and threats to businesses in the industrials and manufacturing sector. But according to Henrik Schrøder, Head of Translink Industrials Group and Managing Partner: Translink Denmark, the future starts today.
Uncertainty about the future has dominated headlines in the last two years. On a global level, the COVID-19-related restrictions and, more recently, the Russia/Ukraine war have resulted in ripple effects and, in some cases, tsunamis that will be felt far into the future. The longer-term extent of these knock-on effects is unknown. Futurists therefore dedicate their work to scenario planning, to imagine plausible futures based on the so-called ‘known unknowns’. This is exactly what Translink and the Institute for Futures Research (IFR) has explored in the first of five sector reports entitled Tomorrow : 2050 Alternative Futures. The first iteration focuses on the futures of industrials.
ESG (Environment Sustainability and Governance) has become an essential concern for deal-making, primarily driven by consumer and investor demand. Now, there are also critical legislative considerations from a myriad of countries. In the move to a stakeholder-centric model, there’s even greater focus on ESG integration, with entire supply chains being assessed. Going forward, we can expect robust ESG frameworks with a host of measurable metrics that will play a big role in acquisition decision-making.
Global events have an inevitable impact on M&A activity, but, with so much capital in the markets, we do anticipate the ‘boom’ is unlikely to slow down any time soon,” says Maurits Hesseling, Board Member of Translink International and Managing Partner of Translink Benelux. In times of major upheaval like a global pandemic or war, his greatest advice to business owners is to analyse their businesses to identify prospective threats and weaknesses.
Five decades ago, Dr Roland Schucht started a mid-market corporate financial advisory services firm. His aim from day one was to grow and go global. Thus, in 1972, Translink had its humble beginnings. From inception, it was one of the first ‘small-to-mid-cap’ M&A firms to go cross-border. This pioneering spirit has continued to be a guiding star, along with a long-standing commitment to sharing – investments and expertise. That’s led Translink to be the world-leading, global group it is today, 50 years on.
50 years ago, in 1972, the great Watergate scandal kicked off in the US, chess maverick Bobby Fischer beat Russian grandmaster Boris Spassky, and Dr Roland Schucht founded a small Swiss cross-border M&A firm he named Translink Corporate Finance. Five decades on and Dr Schucht’s dream has grown into a truly global organisation that can proudly count itself as one of the leading firms in its class.
