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Horizon Scanning 2025 Podcast Launch Series Hosted by our Director of Knowledge and Learning, Claire Marshall-Barrand, the launch series for 2025 offers five short episodes introducing this year’s major themes. Throughout the year, we’ll continue the conversation with in-depth episodes exploring...
  • Capital Flows
  • Article
Private capital's year of building momentum: Is the stage set for 2025? 2024 remained a challenging year for private equity fundraisings, investments and exits. Assets purchased in the era of cheap leverage and high multiples remained locked, with many auction processes failing to take off or being interrupted, while...
  • Capital Flows
  • Article
M&A health-check: will favourable conditions and regulatory easing drive M&A growth in 2025? 2024 was a mixed year for dealmaking, with deal values, if not volumes, increasing compared to 2023. Whilst private capital saw a moderate increase in activity, 2024 has been notable for the significant uptick in larger corporate-to-corporate activity in...
  • Capital Flows
  • Article
Private equity: the evolution of an industry Since the advent of the modern private equity industry in the early 1980s, private equity houses have traditionally adopted the classic model of a buyout fund, raising capital from a club of large institutional investors to fund acquisitions and drive...
  • Capital Flows
  • Article
London calling Reports of the death of UK equity capital markets have been greatly exaggerated. While the London market certainly faces serious competition from overseas, the tide is turning on the City declinism of recent years amid a series of co-ordinated efforts...
  • Capital Flows
  • Article
To run on or buy-out Whilst the total value of defined benefit (DB) scheme liabilities being transferred to an insurer in the first half of 2024 has been lower than expected, the number of transactions (134) has eclipsed another record in the UK, the highest number of deals...
  • Capital Flows
  • Article
Time to rethink business tax (again)? Over the last year, many businesses will have incurred significant costs in adapting to the new global corporate minimum tax, but following the US election in November 2024, there are concerns about the effectiveness of this measure without US support...
  • Capital Flows
  • Article
Navigating the Asia M&A landscape 2024 has been a relatively subdued year for dealmaking in Asia, overall. The activity levels broadly reflect pressures on M&A seen in most parts of the globe – higher inflation, higher interest rates and increased geopolitical tensions – and there...
  • Capital Flows
  • Article
Financing in 2025 Credit markets performed well in 2024, supported by an improving macroeconomic backdrop and robust demand from almost all segments of the market. While borrowing costs remain high relative to recent years, falling inflation and a subsequent easing of...
  • Crisis Management
  • Article
America first? The continuing rise of class actions in England and Wales A long-standing feature of the US legal system, the growth of class actions in England and Wales continues to represent a significant risk for many businesses operating in this jurisdiction even without the adoption of a full US-style class action culture...
  • Crisis Management
  • Article
Reflections and Projections on FCA Enforcement As we enter 2025, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) finds itself at a key juncture. Over the past year, it has made progress in refining its enforcement strategy, adopting a more proactive approach to interventions, and increasing the pace and...
  • Crisis Management
  • Article
2025 activism playbook: trends, expectations, and corporate preparedness Globally, shareholder activism in 2024 has continued to rebound from the pandemic downturn, with campaign activity nearly at the record levels reached in 2018. 
  • Crisis Management
  • Article
M&A Disputes: a reminder on high risk areas for disputes and the latest on managing them Following a period of geopolitical instability and economic uncertainty, while M&A activity has come back, it has brought with it an uptick in disputes between parties looking to get out of bad deals or, at the less extreme end of the spectrum,...
  • Crisis Management
  • Article
"All change" for consumer protection: what you need to know Recent years have seen consumer protection propelled to the top of the agenda for policymakers and regulators. In Spring 2025, long-awaited reforms under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC Act) will overhaul the UK consumer law...
  • Digital
  • Article
Digital Regulation: What to expect in 2025 The last few years have seen a wave of new, sometimes overlapping, digital regulation across the globe. The EU’s ambitious digital programme has resulted in numerous pieces of legislation, while the UK is treading a delicate line of testing post-Brexit...
  • Digital
  • Article
Artificial intelligence: Growing litigation risk Businesses are increasingly integrating AI into their working practices - with McKinsey recently reporting that 65% of the respondents to their “State of AI” survey are now regularly using generative AI in their organisations, nearly doubling the...
  • Digital
  • Article
Tech M&A in 2025: A renewed focus on innovation and growth drives M&A opportunities
  • Digital
  • Article
EU and UK operational resilience: One aim, two approaches Regulated financial institutions operating in the UK and EU often rely on third-party service providers to help run or facilitate important parts of their business. The July 2024 CrowdStrike outage illustrates the critical role that third-party service...
  • Digital
  • Article
Navigating digital transformation: lessons from the AT&T vs. Broadcom Dispute
  • Digital
  • Article
Data commercialisation: opportunities knock in 2025
  • Energy Transition
  • Article
Delivering decarbonisation: how the energy transition is impacting UK and EU corporates Corporates around the world are showing leadership by setting ambitious climate change targets.The drivers to decarbonise may be regulatory, linked to corporate purpose, reputational and/or financial. We are also seeing more scrutiny of and legal...
  • Energy Transition
  • Article
Duelling Dynamics: insights into the AI-Energy Transition Nexus Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the global energy sector, presenting both transformative opportunities and significant challenges. On one hand, AI systems demand vast computational power, contributing to immense energy consumption. On the...
  • Energy Transition
  • Article
Navigating a new wave of energy investment in 2025: The investment tide has turned The energy transition is increasingly driving investment in the energy sector. Investment in the energy transition is forecast to double that of fossil fuels in 2024. For several reasons, this trajectory is expected to continue in 2025.
  • Governance & Sustainability
  • Article
Getting your house in order: Governance in 2025 As we enter 2025, companies face continued pressure to maintain high governance standards. A focus on transparency continues to underpin updates to relevant legislation and regulation across the world. The UK government and regulatory bodies are...