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The Deloitte Consumer Products M&A Survey
Heading in the right direction?
This is the seventh biannual survey of CEOs, CFOs, M&A directors and investors across the European Consumer Products sector.
The report provides insights on the key trends underlying M&A activity in the European Consumer Products sector, as well as our view of M&A activity and trading prospects over the next 12 months.
In this report, we see that whilst the potential for economic shocks remain, there are a number of indicators that suggest deal activity levels are now heading in the right direction.
Key findings:
- Optimism is at its highest - 70% of the respondents feel optimistic about financial prospects for Consumer Products companies over the next 12 months – up from 56% six months ago.
- Striving for growth - Growth strategies look to be returning to the boardroom agenda with international expansion and obtaining growth in adjacent categories seen as main drivers for M&A activity. Customer engagement remains a key area of focus with increased investment in new channels and marketing seen as a priority.
- Cash reserves start to stimulate deal activities - The top 30 listed UK Consumer Products companies hold around £11.1bn of cash reserves even allowing for some of the recent major investments by some of the larger players.
- Price expectation gaps continues to stall potential deals - Although things look to be moving in the right direction, some barriers still remain with over a third of our respondents highlighted price expectation gaps between buyer and sellers as being the primary obstacle to increased M&A activity. Other barriers include economic uncertainty and shareholder and director caution.
The Deloitte Consumer Products M&A Survey Winter 2014