NEWSLETTER of October 1, 2021

The following content has been added at finexpert:

EY
KREDITMARKTSTUDIE 2021
The effects of the Corona pandemic will continue to leave their mark on banks in Germany - and will also have an impact on customers. Forty-two percent of banks are expecting a drop in earnings, and four percent are even expecting a sharp drop. These are the findings of the Credit Market Study 2021 by the auditing and consulting firm EY, for which 100 credit managers from banks and savings banks were surveyed. >more

CMS
ROAD TO RECOVERY: EUROPEAN M&A OUTLOOK 2022
This report provides invaluable insights into the M&A landscape in Europe in 2021, and the opportunities and challenges facing dealmakers. More than half of all respondents expect the level of European M&A activity over the next 12 months to increase. Corporates that have built up large cash piles through the pandemic and PE firms with record levels of dry powder are eager to make up for time lost in lockdowns to get deal timetables back on track. >more

SS&C Intralinks
ENERGY M&A REPORT 2021
This report considers energy sector trends, sharing findings from a forward-looking survey of 100 dealmakers from across APAC, EMEA, North America and Latin America. Forty-five percent of all dealmakers expect overall activity in the sector to rise in 2021 while 40 percent anticipate a fall, with fifteen percent saying it will stay the same. By region, Asia-Pacific-based investors are most optimistic, with 64 percent such respondents predicting an increase in activity in the year ahead. However, only 12 percent of those based in Latin America and the Caribbean felt the same. Instead, the majority (72 percent) of Latin America-based respondents expect deal activity to fall. >more

Mergermarket
FAST FORWARD: HOW TECHNOLOGY M&A IS RESHAPING INDUSTRY
Increased investment in technology has offered answers to many of the challenges brought by the pandemic. Dealmakers have been highly active this year, and this survey of 300 corporate and private equity executives shows they plan to continue investing in technologies that will transform industries through digitalization and the effective harnessing of data. >more

PwC
DIGITALISIERUNG IM FINANZ- UND RECHNUNGSWESEN 2021
In the sixth edition of this study, we again surveyed companies on technological change in finance and accounting, and specifically in auditing. This year's version clearly shows that COVID-19 has also revealed the gaps in digitization in finance and accounting - sometimes relentlessly. The advantage: With greater transparency and comparability, weaknesses can be specifically remedied. Exactly 100 large and medium-sized companies in Germany took part in the study. The intensive surveys took place in spring 2021. >more

THE RISE OF FINANCE COMPANIES AND FINTECH LENDERS IN SMALL BUSINESS LENDING
Manasa Gopal, and Philipp Schnabl
2020
We document that finance companies and FinTech lenders increased lending to small businesses after the 2008 financial crisis. We show that most of the increase substituted for a reduction in lending by banks. In counties where banks had a larger market share before the crisis, finance companies and FinTech lenders increased their lending more. By 2016, the increase in finance company and FinTech lending almost perfectly offset the decrease in bank lending. We control for firms' credit demand by examining lending by different lenders to the same firm, by comparing firms within the same narrow industry, and by comparing firms pledging the same type of collateral. Consistent with the substitution of bank lending with finance company and FinTech lending, we find that reduced bank lending had no effect on employment, wages, new business creation, or business expansion. Our results show that finance companies and FinTech lenders are major suppliers of credit to small businesses and played an important role in the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. >more

ACTIVIST-APPOINTED DIRECTORS
Jun-Koo Kang, Hyemin Kim, Jungmin Kim, and Angie Low
2020
We examine the value impact of independent directors nominated by activists (Activist IDs). Firms appointing Activist IDs experience larger value increases than firms appointing other directors, particularly when Activist IDs have private firm experience and when their nominators remain as shareholders. This value increase persists over a long period and is greater than that of activism events without director appointments. The increase is also higher among firms with greater monitoring needs and entrenched boards. Moreover, the appointments of Activist IDs are greeted more positively by the market, and Activist IDs obtain more favorable shareholder votes and additional future directorships. >more