Will M&As now become a preferred exit route for distressed businesses? Increased restructuring activity in 2024 seems to show that we may see more liability management exercises, innovative funding structures from private credit and equity players, and an increased use of M&A to resolve distress as market volatility heightens and interest rates remain elevated. Surging dry powder with private capital firms and an increasing appetite for more platform-level transactions have led to these investors looking to buy distressed businesses at cheaper or more affordable valuations. For sellers, too, this is an opportunity to exit lagging businesses and to focus on more profitable ventures. Now with a government, who has historically been more favourable to M&As, there is an expectation that such transactions will become the de rigueur and create a more dynamic ecosystem for stressed businesses.
Swapnil Sawant has been covering this trend at 9fin and seems to agree that M&As are now the new exit route to troubled businesses. An alumnus of Columbia Business School, he has worked in distressed investments for around a decade and has extensively covered news-worthy bankruptcies such as Spirit Airlines, Bed Bath and Beyond, WeWork and Party City among others.
