Despite a year marked by geopolitical uncertainty, higher tariffs, and slowing growth,
we've seen a surge in deal-making activity in 2025.
So, what has the M&A market been so resilient?
And can this current wave of M&A activity continue in 2026?
To help unpack the state of deals and chart the road ahead,
I'm joined by Goldman Sachs' Stefan Feldgeuse,
head of global mergers and acquisitions in the firm's global banking and markets business.
Stephen, welcome back to the program.
Thanks for having me.
Stephen, when we spoke about a year ago, the M&A market was just beginning to show signs of life.
But since then, we've actually had a long list of headwinds.
We've had Liberation Day that brought higher tariffs and a lot of concerns about sharply higher tariffs.
There's been broader policy uncertainty, macro uncertainty, and most recently,
of course, we've had the longest US government shut down in history.
So a lot of headwinds, but the M&A activity has actually picked up very sizeably.
So why is that given all of these headwinds?
It's interesting.
It's actually very interesting.
The first quarter of the year, as you said,
there was a fair degree of uncertainty post-election heading into a 2025 where people weren't sure how it would play out.