The Covid-19 pandemic brought the M&A market to a halt. The number of operations fell by 22% worldwide in the first half (and by 40% in value), according to the firm Allen & Overy. The trend is even more marked for French SMEs, whose number of mergers fell by 45% during the first six months of the year, compared to the same period of 2019, notes the firm In Extenso Finance & Transmission. "However, the majority of files already well advanced have gone to the end of the process ," emphasizes Bruno Villard, head of mergers and acquisitions for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at BNP Paribas CIB. It took very special situations for this to get stuck. ”In fact, some operations such as the takeover of PartnerRe by the mutual insurer Covéa fell through. "PartnerRe has refused to renegotiate its high selling price downward , " says an investment banker.
Since the end of containment, activity has resumed.
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