Mega deals won’t lead M&A rebound under Trump

US BANKERS are rubbing their hands at an expected boom in dealmaking under a market-friendly president-elect Donald Trump next year. But scratch the surface, and it is apparent that the mergers and acquisitions to come are far more likely to be among smaller companies. Mega deals will not lead the way.

Denis Coleman, the chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs, summed up the optimism on Bloomberg TV last week. He expects the coming change of leadership at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), one key antitrust regulator, to remove some of the headwinds to takeovers and help improve “CEO confidence and unlock more investment, more activity and provide a more favourable strategic backdrop”.

However, Trump’s populist brand of Republicanism retains a strong dislike of the power of big companies, embodied by his vice-president-elect JD Vance.