Co-head of Torys' M&A practice John Emanoilidis has echoed industry sentiments suggesting 2024 will see an uptick in M&A transactions, after what was a slow 2023.

An article by law.com, said that "[a]ccording to a report from PwC, the third quarter of 2023 was the lowest quarter in terms of deal volume since 2017 and the last quarter of the year looks to be even softer."

Read: M&A Outlook for 2024

In an interview with law.com John said there is optimism for the year ahead and added that valuation expectations are resetting.

"I think what we're seeing is balance and realistic views of valuation and that's narrowing the bid-ask spreads. So we are seeing quite a few transactions in the pipeline," John said.

John said that highly regulated areas that also have government stimulus programs will likely see increased deal activity in 2024. Regulatory complexity requires upfront work by regulatory counsel to try to identify potential concerns and take proactive steps.

"Regulators across the globe... have a belief that they had allowed markets to become uncompetitive, so they're trying to correct against that," he said.

You can read more about our M&A work on our practice page.