President-elect Donald Trump The return to the White House could mark a shift in the mergers and acquisitions market after President Biden’s administration successfully challenged several high-profile mergers in the past four years.

The Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department’s antitrust division intervened in a series of proposals mergers and acquisitions to challenge deals they saw as undermining competition and potentially harming consumers.

Among the deals that were eventually blocked by federal courts or abandoned by the parties to the deal were Kroger’s $25 billion acquisition of Albertsons, while the mergers between JetBlue and Spirit airlines, as well as luxury fashion companies Capri and Tapestry, were also blocked. by court rulings.

With FTC Chair Lina Khan set to leave the agency later this month and the leadership of the DOJ’s antitrust division also set to change with the new administration, market participants expect the Trump’s second administration to take a lighter approach to deals in the next four. years

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President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is expected to take a more pro-M&A approach. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)

KPMG conducted an annual year-end survey of corporate and private equity businesses that found 76% of respondents said the election results would increase US M&A activity, while 80% say it would increase their own appetite for deals. potential tax policy The changes were seen as an increase in M&A activity by 811% of negotiators, while 79% said the election will lead to an easier regulatory or antitrust environment for deals.

Similar sentiments were found in a recent survey by Teneo which found that 83% of CEOs and 87% of investors expect the M&A market to experience significant performance by 2025, compared to 68% of last year The share of respondents expecting “significantly more” M&A activity increased from 17% to 37% among CEOs and from 26% to 34% for investors.

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Kroger and Albertsons abandoned their merger after it was blocked by a federal court. (Kroger: Charles Bertram/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images | Albertsons: Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)

The survey also found that 86% of both CEOs and investors predict there will be an accelerated pace of M&A activity under the Trump administration, while 80% of CEOs and 74% of investors predict the administration will have a positive impact on deal completion .

Ted Jenkin, president of Exit Stage Left Advisors, told FOX Business that Trump’s selection of Andrew Ferguson to chair the FTC, a $35 billion “merger Monday” in early December and possible tax changes in 2025 mean “the writing is on the wall”. that the next four years should be extremely robust for M&A activity.”

Raj Sharma, director of strategic business development and mergers and acquisitions at Itochu, said inflation is easing and lower interest rates Deal-making is likely to increase during the Trump administration, along with a new approach to vetting those deals.

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“In general, President Trump has been quite permissive about mergers and acquisitions in the financial services, energy and industrial sectors during his tenure,” Sharma added. “He is expected to be permissive again in his second term, although he has been critical of the influence of big tech and will not be as supportive of mergers and acquisitions in this space.”