Lawyer Monthly Magazine - March 2020 Edition

What’s happening in the world of M&As and IPOs? As mentioned last month, 2019 saw a decline in M&A activity with all eyes now on 2020 to see how the M&A sector performs, even though some reports suggested that the decline will slowly continue. And with coronavirus impacting the markets, it is without a doubt that everyone in the industry is keeping a keen eye on stocks and how it will influence big players in the investment scene, especially in the long run. The past month, however, we have still seen the M&A sector remaining relatively active. In the tech industry, DocuSign announced they will acquire Seal Software for $188M after investing $15M in Seal early last year. The energy industry also had a big deal, where Eversource agreed to purchase the Massachusetts natural gas assets of Columbia Gas from parent NiSource for $1.1B. In consumer news, PepsiCo purchased Hangzhou Haomusi Food - also known as Be & Cheery - from Haoxiangni Health Food, a Chinese online snacks retailer for $705M and Tiffany shareholders approved the company’s acquisition by LVMH Moët Hennessy, with LMVH paying $135/share in cash as announced last year in November. Things are ticking along slowly, but it will be interesting to see how the investment scene will progress in 2020 in correlation to political changes and economic developments. This month, in our monthly M&A section, we feature some deals and acquisitions and speak to the legal advisers who were instructed for their expertise and how they think this sector will progress in their jurisdiction in months to come.