Informe Mensual España – Abril 2020

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El mercado transaccional español registra una disminución del 27% en el número de operaciones hasta abril de 2020 

En 2020 se han registrado 595 operaciones y un importe de EUR 12.163m 

En abril se han registrado 59 operaciones y un capital movilizado de EUR 2.785,56m 

El sector Inmobiliario es el más activo del año, con 142 transacciones 

En el año se registran 35 operaciones de Private Equity y 114 de Venture Capital 

El mercado transaccional español ha registrado hasta el mes de abril un total de 595 operaciones con un importe agregado de EUR 12.163m, según el informe mensual de TTR. Estas cifras suponen un descenso del 59,55% en el capital movilizado y una disminución del 26,72% en el número de operaciones, con respecto al mismo periodo de 2019. 

Por su parte, en el mes de abril se han contabilizado 59 fusiones y adquisiciones, entre anunciadas y cerradas, por un importe agregado de EUR 2.785,56m. 

En términos sectoriales, el sector Inmobiliario ha sido el más activo del año, con un total de 142 transacciones, seguido por el de Tecnología, con 102. 

Ámbito Cross-Border 

Por lo que respecta al mercado Cross-Border, hasta abril de 2020 las empresas españolas han elegido como principales destinos de inversión a Portugal y Francia, con 12 y 6 operaciones, respectivamente. En términos de importe, Portugal es el país en el que España ha realizado un mayor desembolso, con un valor aproximado de EUR 1.191m.  

Por otro lado, Reino Unido y Estados Unidos, con 38 y 33 operaciones respectivamente, son los países que mayor número de inversiones han realizado en España. Por importe destaca Alemania, con un importe de EUR 1.759,60m. 

Private Equity y Venture Capital

En lo que va de año se han contabilizado un total de 35 operaciones de Private Equity por EUR 1.718m, lo cual supone un descenso del 59,30% en el número de operaciones y del 90,12% en el importe de las mismas, respecto al mismo periodo del año anterior.  

Por su parte, en el mercado de Venture Capital se han llevado a cabo 114 transacciones con un importe agregado de EUR 216m, lo que implica una reducción del 19,15% en el número de operaciones y del 68,73% en el importe de las mismas, en términos interanuales. 

Asset Acquisitions

En el segmento de Asset Acquisitions, hasta abril se han registrado 190 operaciones por un valor de EUR 3.089m, lo cual representa una disminución del 26,36% en el número de operaciones, y un descenso del 29,51% en el importe de éstas, en términos interanuales. 

Transacción del mes 

En abril de 2020, TTR ha seleccionado como transacción destacada la adquisición de Tallgrass Energy por parte de Blackstone, Enagás y GIC. 

La operación, que ha registrado un importe de EUR 2.755,83m, ha estado asesorada por la parte legal por Vinson & Elkins; Latham & Watkins; Sidley Austin US; Bracewell Law; y por Baker Botts. Por la parte financiera, la operación ha sido asesorada por Citigroup Global Markets; Credit Suisse Group; y por Evercore Partners.  

Ranking de asesores financieros y jurídicos 

Transactional Impact Monitor: Spain & Portugal – Vol. 2

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Transactional Impact Monitor: Spain & Portugal – Vol. 2

24 April 2020

TTR’s Transactional Impact Monitor (TIM) is a Special Report combining local knowledge and market visibility from top dealmakers developed to address extraordinary situations affecting the macroeconomic stability and M&A outlook in core markets

INDEX

SPAIN
– M&A Outlook
– Private Equity
– Equity Capital Markets
– Handling the Crisis

PORTUGAL
– M&A Outlook
– Private Equity
– Handling the Crisis

– Dealmaker Profiles

SPAIN

Headlines across the world have begun to shift from the threatening global pandemic to the grim economic outlook facing countless countries grappling with the need to lift restrictions on business activities and resuscitate the livelihoods of their citizens. 

Despite a two-week extension of the state of emergency that has kept residents locked inside their homes since mid-March until at least 9 May, Spain faces the same need to get its people back to work without succumbing en masse to SARS-CoV-2. All indications suggest a tough road ahead. The Bank of Spain projects a fall in GDP of between 6% and 13% and a public spending deficit as high as 11% in 2020, with a rapid, V-shaped recovery increasingly unlikely. 

“Six percent is out of the question,” Deloitte Partner and Head of Private Equity Tomás de Heredia told TTR. Though there are some sectors performing quite well, including agriculture and food manufacturing, Spain’s heavy dependence on tourism and construction will slow the recovery, Heredia said. 

If hotels aren’t permitted to open until September, according to the most likely scenario under discussion, Spain will lose a large chunk of its GDP over the next several months as its peak tourism season falls flat, Heredia noted. 

In the construction industry, building already underway will carry on as restrictions are lifted, but investors are not likely to bank on new projects, he added. “I don’t see any real estate developer starting something from scratch now without the certainty that they will be selling in 24 months.” 

In the first few weeks of the crisis, there was a sense that Spain was falling into a black hole just like Italy, said Pérez-Llorca Founding Partner Pedro Pérez-Llorca. Spain transitioned quickly from a growing market nearing the end of the economic cycle into a state of emergency harboring a very serious problem, he said. It was initially seen as a local problem, he noted, but within a few weeks, that emergency spread to the most important markets in world: the UK and the US. 

With 22m newly unemployed in the US, the largest source market for capital under management has its own problems, Pérez-Llorca pointed out. “Strategic investors that had been considering investments in Spain, now have too many problems at home to look at cross-border deals,” he said. Add to that the restrictions on foreign investment passed by the Spanish government to protect the local market and the outlook for inbound deals in the short-term is complicated, he said.

The word, in terms of politics and economics, is uncertainty, said Heredia. As long as you have some certain kind of environment, whether it’s good or bad, people will adjust their investment strategies. The worst thing that we are seeing is that the government is not giving the necessary certainty. “One day they say kids will return to school, the next day they say they won’t,” said Heredia. “They say businesses can reopen, then they say they can’t,” he added. 

Auriga Global Investors Head of Derivatives and Alternative Investments Diego García de la Peña said his clients and portfolio companies were indeed desperate for clarity on the duration of the lockdown. 

“If the confinement lasts only three months, restaurants can recover. It will be three months of write-off, of zero sales, and then we’ll hit bottom with a bad, but more or less manageable, outlook for 2020,” said García. “If the measures are extended, or if there’s another wave in October, anything to do with food and beverage and tourism – those sectors will face restructuring,” García said. “The duration of the confinement and the resolution of the health crisis are key.”

“We hope that over the next two weeks, at a maximum, all this will be cleared up,” Heredia said. “Everyone was expecting that the economy would recover before the summertime. Now everyone factors in that growth will recover after the summer.”

The unemployment rate in Spain, like in many other countries, “is going through the roof”, meanwhile, Heredia noted, and though there’s no official data because the government considers this a temporary situation being contained with public funds, there’s uncertainty over how long this will endure and people are depleting their savings.

Four-to-five months down the road, when people go back to work, a lot of companies will reduce their workforce and people will devote their savings to the most critical needs: education for their children and groceries, he said. “Obviously, there will be a recovery next year, but I don’t see many people buying second homes. That’s going to drive down everything,” he said. 

Tourism will not begin to recover until the fall, and construction will remain sluggish, Heredia said. “Our view is that hotels won’t be reopened until September or October.” Next year, without a doubt, tourism will be good, Heredia said, and as soon as tourism starts flowing, the economy will pick up overall. Companies have stronger balance sheets than they did in the global financial crisis of 2008 and the government is providing liquidity; demand will come back next year, he said. 

The retail industry, meanwhile, will see a contraction once everything opens up again, Heredia noted, and companies will begin cutting costs by closing the last points of sale they opened, which tend to be those secured at higher cost in poorer locations when retail space was scarce. Companies will start scaling down their retail platforms to where they were two years ago, he said, noting that the shift towards e-commerce accelerated by the crisis will further contribute to a scale-back. 

The great winner in Spain is Amazon, Heredia said, noting that within specific niches there were smaller Internet companies, including wine and grocery distributors, capitalizing on the shift to e-commerce. “Those verticals are covered locally, but at a much smaller scale.”

Despite the confounding limbo crippling the country, Heredia said he had a positive outlook for the medium term. “I can only see growth. We are now at the trough; investors already discount this year and there is only one way to go: up. We cannot get worse.”

M&A Outlook
… Click here to access the second issue of Transactional Impact Monitor: Spain & Portugal – Vol. 2

PORTUGAL

On 20 April, Portugal’s prime minister outlined new rules for cautiously reanimating the economy beginning in May with a gradual return to normalcy under restrictions aimed at avoiding a surge in the number of SARS-CoV-2 cases heading into the summer tourism season.

What started out as, and still remains, essentially a health crisis, will create substantial shockwaves in the Portuguese economy, Alantra Portugal Managing Partner Rita Barosa told TTR. The crisis hit Portugal at a particularly bad moment, as the country had a number of vulnerabilities, Barosa said.

Portugal’s public debt stood at 118% of GDP, with the IMF projecting an increase to 135%, noted Oxy Capital Partner Daniel Viana, which does not allow much fiscal space for helping companies emerge from the crisis. Viana described the measures offered by the Portuguese government to address the crisis as “lightweight” compared to what other EU countries have done.

Portugal’s dependence on tourism and aging population also represent vulnerabilities, Viana said, and projections of an 8% contraction in GDP and an increase in unemployment to 14% paint a stark picture for 2020. 

This crisis has an additional risk for Portugal compared to the 2010 crisis because it is much more global, said Barosa. It affects not just Portugal but the whole world in a more severe way at a time when prosperity was very much associated with freedom of movement and global commerce, she added. “In the previous crisis, a big part of the rest of the world wasn’t in the same situation as we were and that was an important force pushing us towards prosperity again. In fact, most transactions then were cross-border.”

Small businesses will be disproportionately impacted and many will probably have to close shop, said Viana. The largest companies are financially prepared to endure three or four months of disruption, but most companies do not have that solidity and strength, Morais Leitão Partner Nuno Galvão Teles agreed.

Rising unemployment and declining purchasing power will impact many businesses across the board, said Viana. “Companies are trying to be prepared for the worst case scenario, while at the same time hoping for the best.”

The economic crisis impacting countries across the world may lead to important structural changes with important implications for trade and commerce and M&A, Barosa noted. “We are living in a time of global distribution chains, but we may see a few countries try to reinforce their own domestic distribution channels since this crisis has caused a disruption.”  

It is now obvious that the crisis will be deeper, longer and tougher than initially thought, which makes following a business plan and managing liquidity a real challenge, she said. Companies that were thinking about corporate acquisitions now have their own internal challenges, be it with their supply and distribution channels, costs related to maintaining sanitary measures in place, or being prepared to have staff working remotely; all that represents costs that were considered fleeting, but are now here to stay, she said.

It is not yet clear what amount of support will be given by the European Commission and how that will be carried out, Barosa added, and if it will result in a deeper asymmetry between EU members. “There is still a lot being discussed. What we have now in terms of information and aid is still insufficient.”

M&A Outlook
… Click here to access the second issue of Transactional Impact Monitor: Spain & Portugal – Vol. 2

Transactional Impact Monitor: Spain & Portugal

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Transactional Impact Monitor: Spain & Portugal – Vol. 1

8 April 2020

TTR’s Transactional Impact Monitor (TIM) is a Special Report combining local knowledge and market visibility from top dealmakers developed to address extraordinary situations affecting the macroeconomic stability and M&A outlook in core markets

INDEX

SPAIN
– M&A Outlook
– Private Equity
– Equity Capital Markets
– Handling the Crisis

PORTUGAL
– M&A Outlook
– Private Equity
– Handling the Crisis

– The View from Milan
– Dealmaker Profiles

SPAIN

As alarm and panic make way for cautious optimism in Spain’s battle with SARS-CoV-2 amid a fall in the daily tally of deaths attributed to the virus, the country’s top dealmakers tell TTR of the unprecedented impact containment measures are having on the economy and the transactional market.

The year kicked off strong, private equity firms had a lot of dry powder, but there was a feeling that we were nearing the end of the cycle, said Latham & Watkins Managing Partner Ignacio Gómez-Sancha. “The situation has now changed dramatically from a growth market to a panorama of shock.”

After nearly a month of confinement, which tightened on 14 March with a royal decree that has since been extended through 25 April, countless companies in Spain are reeling, factories are shuttered, restaurants closed, and the bar culture the country is famous for, conspicuously absent.

Spaniards are demonstrating resolve, absolutely convinced of the prudence of adhering to the royal decree for the common good, despite a generalized lack of trust in government predating the crisis, and morale is improving as the number of reported cases reaching the country’s hospitals stabilizes. Just like the enhanced security screening at airports in place since 2001, measures imposed to safeguard public health have been accepted as the new normal, said Gómez-Sancha.

The Spanish government has approved some EUR 100bn to support corporates impacted by the shutdown, making EUR 20bn available to date, 50% allocated to loan guarantees and for small and medium-size enterprises. “What is still lacking are concrete measures to implement it,” said Gómez-Sancha. 

The funds allocated for businesses impacted by the shutdown form part of a broader pledged package of support worth more than EUR 200bn, or nearly 20% of Spain’s GDP. Measures include a moratorium on evictions and utility interruptions affecting those whose livelihoods have been interrupted, with corresponding subsidies to service providers. The government has also announced concessional micro financing for consumers and the postponement of social security contributions for the self-employed.

M&A Outlook
… Click here to access the first issue of Transactional Impact Monitor: Spain & Portugal

PORTUGAL

The Portuguese government issued a stay at home plea to its citizens on 13 March, the same weekend the royal decree was issued in Spain. A week later, the government declared a state of emergency and ordered all non-essential businesses closed, a measure renewed 3 April for another fortnight. The monetary response to the crisis has been modest by comparison, however, with just EUR 3bn allocated in guarantee schemes for SMEs and midcaps and another EUR 7bn being sought from the European Commission.

SMEs in Portugal will essentially depend on state aid, which at the moment has not matched expectations, according to Vieira de Almeida (VdA) Group Senior Partner and Head of M&A Practice Jorge Bleck. All companies related to tourism in Portugal are having a very rough time, Bleck noted. “It is devastating because it has meant losing almost all revenue in 24 hours. Those activities were effectively providing jobs to many, many people in Portugal.” 

“For the most optimistic in the tourism and commercial aviation sectors, 2020 is a lost year,” said PLMJ Partner and co-head of Corporate M&A Duarte Schmidt. “Those who are most pessimistic are worried this might be the start of a very long recession.”

The timing of this crisis is unfortunate for Portugal, as it hits at a moment of fiscal vulnerability, Bleck said. “People are forgetful, because they were deluded with the increase in GDP and its mathematical effect of reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio,” Bleck said. The overall debt increased, however, he pointed out. “Now that GDP will fall, we will end up with debt levels in the region of 140%,” he said. 

The impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 response in Portugal are very different for industrial versus service companies, noted Atena Equity Partners Chairman João Rodrigo Santos. Most service providers are closed for business, whereas industrial companies, especially those that are export-oriented, are still open but probably experiencing a slowdown in new orders, he said. 

“Most companies are preparing for a very complicated period ahead by reducing costs and securing rescue financing from banks,” Santos said. “We were already late in the cycle, so the pandemic was just the trigger of a recession. As in all recessions, the majority of businesses will suffer one way or the other,” said Santos.

Santos is not optimistic about the prospects for a rapid recovery. The consumer discretionary segment is going to suffer more over the next couple of years, both at services and industrial levels, he said. 

“Besides being traditionally a very cyclical sector, I believe this time the ramp-up is going to be slower given the likely unprecedented drop in GDP, rising unemployment, and the anti-social trauma this pandemic will create,” he warned. 

M&A Outlook
… Click here to access the first issue of Transactional Impact Monitor: Spain & Portugal

Informe Trimestral España – 1T 2020

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El número de operaciones de M&A en España disminuye un 17% en el primer trimestre de 2020

En el primer trimestre se han contabilizado 484 fusiones y adquisiciones por EUR 8.387m

En el periodo se ha registrado 32 operaciones de Private Equity y 78 de Venture Capital

El sector inmobiliario ha registrado el mayor número de operaciones, con 122, pese a una caída del 26% con respecto al primer trimestre del año pasado

El sector Tecnológico aumentó un 13% su actividad con respecto al mismo periodo de 2019

El mercado transaccional español cierra los tres primeros meses del año con un total de 484 fusiones y adquisiciones, entre anunciadas y cerradas, por un importe agregado de EUR 8.387,22m, según el informe trimestral de TTR en colaboración con Intralinks. Estas cifran suponen una disminución del 16,70% en el número de operaciones y del 57,14% en el importe de las mismas, con respecto al mismo periodo de 2019.

En términos sectoriales, el Inmobiliario es el más activo del año, con un total de 122 transacciones, seguido por el sector Tecnológico, con 80, y el Financiero y de Seguros, con 37 operaciones. No obstante, el sector Inmobiliario registra una disminución del 26% con respecto al primer trimestre de 2019, mientras que el sector de Tecnología aumenta su actividad en un 13%, y el sector Financiero y de Seguros mantiene una tendencia estable con respecto al mismo periodo del año pasado. 

Ámbito Cross-Border 

Por lo que respecta al mercado Cross-Border, en el primer trimestre del año, las empresas españolas han elegido como principales destinos de sus inversiones a Portugal y Francia, con 7 y 6 operaciones, respectivamente. En términos de importe, Portugal es el país en el que España ha realizado un mayor desembolso, con un importe agregado de EUR 800m.

Por otro lado, Reino Unido (33), Estados Unidos (21) y Alemania (15) son los países que mayor número de inversiones han realizado en España. Por importe destaca Alemania, con un importe agregado de EUR 1.466,10m. 

Private Equity y Venture Capital

En los tres primeros meses de 2020 se han contabilizado un total de 32 operaciones de Private Equity, de las cuales 8 de esas transacciones tienen un importe no confidencial agregado de EUR 1.273m. Esto supone una disminución del 48,39% en el número de operaciones y un descenso del 87,32% en el importe de las mismas con respecto al mismo periodo del año anterior.

Por su parte, en el mercado de Venture Capital se han llevado a cabo 78 transacciones, de las cuales 67 tienen un importe no confidencial agregado de EUR 145m. En este caso, ha existido un descenso con respecto al primer trimestre de 2019 del 23,53% en el número de las operaciones, y una reducción del 59,23% en el capital movilizado.

Asset Acquisitions

En el mercado de adquisición de activos, se han cerrado en el primer trimestre del año 162 transacciones con un importe de EUR 2.824m, lo cual implica un descenso del 17,17% en el número de operaciones y una disminución del 25,38% en su importe con respecto al mismo periodo de 2019. 

Mercado de Capitales

En el mercado de capitales español se han cerrado en los tres primeros meses de 2020 dos salidas a Bolsa y siete ampliaciones de capital. 

Transacción del trimestre 

En el primer trimestre de 2020, TTR ha seleccionado como transacción destacada la adquisición de un 26,2% de Shangai RAAS Blood Products por parte de Grifols, valorada en EUR 1.744,32m.

Los asesores legales implicados en la operación han sido Osborne Clarke Spain, Proskauer Rose, y JunHe, como asesores de Grifols; y Uría Menéndez España y Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer España, como asesores de Shanghai RAAS Blood Products. Por otro lado, Nomura, CICC – China International Capital Corporation, y BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking han sido los asesores financieros de la operación, prestando servicio a Grifols.

Ranking de asesores financieros y jurídicos 

DealMaker Q&A

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TTR DealMaker Q&A with Auriga Global Investors Head of Derivatives and Alternative Investments Diego García de la Peña

Diego García de la Peña is Head of Derivatives and Alternative Investments, as well as Head of Hedging Consulting for Private Equity funds, infrastructures, real estate, family offices, and companies in Auriga Global Investor. In both activities, the aim is providing solutions for companies’ capital structures and helping them, as well as supporting sponsors to develop their business plans.

_____________________________________________

TTR: 2018 was a record year regarding Private Equity investment, how has it been in 2019? What can we expect for 2020? 

D.G. P.: In 2019 all historical records were broken again in Spain with a volume of investment close to 8.5 billion euros compared to 6 billion euros in the previous year (+41% year-on-year increase), according to Ascri’s data. Furthermore, the number of megadeals (transactions over 100MM EUR) has increased from 8 transactions in 2018 to 18 in 2019. In our case, the activity has been very positive, since we have advised some of the most relevant players in the sector, such as the private equity fund MCH in the management of the interest rate riskof Grupo Palacios’ financing, or the management company ICG in the management of the interest rate hedging of Konecta’s financing. 

Unfortunately, 2020 has started as a year of total uncertainty due to the situation in which we find ourselves in a global health and economic alert. Initially it was starting as a good year of investment, perhaps with volumes not as high as previous years but with a good deal flow but now we will have to see the evolution of the crisis and above all its geographical range and temporal evolution. 

TTR: In recent months you have advised relevant players like Plenium Partners or MCH Private Equity, could you give us any comments about the most relevant transactions? 

D.G. P.: Plenium Partners has executed several transactions in recent months, being one of the most active market participants in the renewable energy sector. On the one hand, Rewind Energy V, a company controlled by Helia Renovables, acquired Sun European Investments Eólico Olivillo, a company that owns two 53.5 MW wind farms in Jerez de la Frontera, as well as three photovoltaic plants. Auriga advised on interest rate hedging in the refinancing. In addition, Tescobor Spain, controlled by Helia Renovables, acquired San Clemente Solar Project, owner of two solar farms in Spain, which have an aggregate capacity of 10 MW. In this transaction, Auriga advised on the interest rate hedging for the refinancing of the park. 

We can also highlight the purchase by Global Tholos, controlled by MCH Private Equity, Ardian, and LGT European Capital, of 100% of Palacios Alimentación in the American company Carlyle. Auriga advised MCH on the interest rate hedging associated with the financing of the Palacios Alimentación acquisition. 

TTR: What sectors do you consider as more active in M&A and Private Equity in recent months and currently? 

D.G. P.: One of the sectors that is experiencing a lot of activity is the renewable energy sector. On the one hand, in the parks already in operation fuelled by the new decree approved by the government guaranteeing profitability until 2031, which gives regulatory and economic stability to investors, as we have experienced on T-Solar’s portfolio refinancing of 23 PV plants deal last December. On the other hand, in the development and construction of new parks, a segment in which we are seeing many operations. 

Another sector that we believe will be very active is the agri-food sector. The entry of Private Equity funds allows the consolidation of this sector which is controlled by small family businesses generally, benefiting from economies of scale. In addition, they can provide professionalization in management, organic growth or boost internationalization. 

Finally, we believe that the Healthcare sector will continue to be very attractive for Private Equity, in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical technology, hospitals and elderly care. As mentioned in the agribusiness sector, consolidation is one of the value levers, as is the demographic factor due to the ageing population or the improved efficiency of health services. 

TTR: Alternative financing has definitely gained traction in Spain, what can we expect in following years? 

D.G. P.: Alternative financing is seen as something normal in Spain already, both by the business sector and by the banking sector and this normalization is a very important tombstone. Companies no longer see debt funds as exclusively opportunistic source of finance and banks incorporate them as co-financiers in a wide range of operations. 

In the next few years, we expect an increase in sponsorless transactions, as up to now most alternative debt operations have been sponsor-driven. With the increase of alternative financing funds present in Spain, as well as with the reduction of company size and minimum financing amounts as requisites to carry out operations, we believe that there will be a shift towards non-sponsor driven operations. 

We also believe that there will be a greater segmentation of alternative financing operations between pure growth senior bullet financing in high-performance companies, hybrid debt for companies that need a mixed debt-equity solution or special situation financing. 

We will have to be alert to the evolution of the crisis and the liquidity situation with which companies come out of it in order to support them in specific stress situations. 

TTR: Regarding Hedging strategies for Private Equity financing and portfolio companies, what trends can you highlight? 

D.G. P.: Currently, we think it is interesting to hedge with caps instead of traditional hedging with swaps, although the volatility of the former has increased significantly due to the crisis, which has resulted in an increase in premiums. Likewise, it is still interesting, in the case of hedging with swaps, to utilize forward starting swaps in order to avoid low interest rates when the outstanding capital is higher. 

As for currency hedges, we are seeing greater and longer-term planning by the acquiring funds in conjunction with the financial teams of the portfolio companies, like we have experienced with Riverside in the hedging of La Galvanina deal. 

TTR: We are in the midst of one of the major crises and pandemics in history due to COVID-19, right at a very good moment for Private Equity and M&A. In the mid-term, how it´s going to affect the market? 

D.G. P.: We at Auriga believe that it is tremendously important to see the extension in time of the crisis at a global level. If it were a one-off problem, being it totally dramatic, but one that can be overcome in 2-3 months, we believe that the impact will be limited and recovery will be quick, although we also think that it is difficult to reach previous levels. On the other hand, if, as it seems, it is going to be a problem that extends over time because it is affecting different parts of the planet in different phases and consecutively, we believe that the consequences are unpredictable and more far-reaching. 

In the medium term, we believe that it will be important for companies and financiers to have flexibility to find imaginative solutions to the liquidity and financial structure problems that will arise, in order to offer stability to the productive system. 

We also believe that it will be a market that will provide interesting opportunities for those participants who have funds available but, on the other hand, it will be an environment in which fund-raising might prove difficult because investors may have a lower valuation of their assets due to the fall in positions in organised markets and, therefore, less money available in absolute value for allocation to alternative investment.