Tanishka Pandey, Amity University, Lucknow
ABSTRACT
As the COVID 19 pandemic continues to affect the global economy, all aspects of business including Mergers and Acquisitions have been affected. A number of major deals of the world have been halted which might resume as and when things get stabilized. The impact of the pandemic is not only on the financial system generally but on quite a number of other factors affecting M&A deals. This is unlike financial and economic crises of the past which included the cutting back or delaying of acquisition plans by the buyers. With travel restrictions, and lockdowns most operations are running remotely thus making the process of due diligence longer. Representation &Warranties insurers are implicating a diverse set of proposals varying from full out exclusion of all losses from or related to COVID-19 exposures at the non-binding indication letter stage to tighter or more targeted exclusion related to a specific representation. The evaluation of the Mutual Adverse Change clause also may change over time to the extent until the pandemic resolves. Extension of the long stop dates may be considered as it is not possible for the parties to adhere to the original longstop dates in the agreement due to travel restrictions and lockdowns. These are some of the factors that have been hugely affected in the deal making process of Mergers and Acquisitions. New opportunities and ways of deal making however seem to be coming up as various new practices are taken up by the governments all around the world to help with the ‘new normal’.
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