Wall Street’s investment banking boom stalls on conflict

The pace of initial public offerings (IPOs) and large-scale mergers and acquisitions (M&As) slammed to a halt in recent weeks as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threw markets and broader economies into chaos. It’s particularly stark in Europe, where one senior dealmaker expects M&A fees to drop by a third and equity underwriting revenue to fall even more steeply.

NEW YORK: Investment banking leaders started this year confident that the records their dealmakers notched in 2021 would be swiftly broken. Things changed quickly.

The pace of initial public offerings (IPOs) and large-scale mergers and acquisitions (M&As) slammed to a halt in recent weeks as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threw markets and broader economies into chaos. It’s particularly stark in Europe, where one senior dealmaker expects M&A fees to drop by a third and equity underwriting revenue to fall even more steeply.