The corporate landscape in Europe looks set to be radically altered next year as chief executives of some of the continent’s biggest public companies embark on a series of transformational deals, according to a wide-ranging study conducted by UBS just six weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. A combination of the need for consolidation within some industries, attractive prices of assets and struggling players needing new ownership will spur a series of deals, echoing the experience of previous crises in the 1930s, 1970s and late 1980s, the study found. But FT Alphaville thinks at least some of the 160 CEOs and senior managers of publicly listed European companies surveyed by UBS are in a state of denial. Moreover, despite the overall optimism, 92 per cent of those polled conceded that there are some significant external barriers to deals.
