SEC goes ‘back to basics’ with capital markets focus – Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner Edward Best, with Troy Hooper

The SEC is somewhat unsurprisingly shifting “back to basics” under the Trump 2.0 administration, according to Edward Best, a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher on the corporate and financial services team and co-chair of the capital markets practice. During the Biden presidency, the agency focused on technical violations and retrieved billions of dollars in settlements, whereas the current leadership is focusing more on protecting investors and making capital markets more efficient, Best argues.In this episode of Dealcast, Best joins Mergermarket’s co-head of Americas ECM Troy Hooper, to discuss how this shift in agenda is impacting capital markets. They discuss how the SEC is trying to simplify IPO processes and why it’s considering moving away from quarterly to semi-annual reporting for public companies.The episode explores what kinds of deals are doing well, from follow-on offerings to IPOs. It looks at the shift away from startups to more established companies with well-founded financials. It also delves into the companies and industries that are perhaps less flashy, but are drawing increasing IPO interest, like construction companies, retail businesses, and widget-makers.With questions addressed like, which companies could be listing this year, why the market has seen a resurgence of SPACs over the last twelve months, and how volatility is impacting investor decision making, this episode is not one to miss.

“A land of opportunity” full of “hidden champions” across strategic sectors. That’s how Eurazeo co-CEOs William Kadouch-Chassaing and Christophe Bavière class Europe, as the Paris-listed sponsor eyes deployment opportunities from energy transition and defence through to tech-enabled services and healthcare.In this week’s episode of Dealcast, the co-CEOs engage in a wide-ranging discussion with Mergermarket executive editor Lucinda Guthrie, painting a dynamic picture of a continent decisively embracing a pro-competitiveness agenda, particularly at the European Union (EU) level.Amid efforts to unlock insurance and pension fund cash for investment in GPs, Bavière and Kadouch-Chassaing run the rule on how the EU is also building an AI sandbox and creating conditions for scale-ups to remain in Europe, creating a strong primary buyout pipeline.With EUR 39bn in assets under management, Eurazeo’s co-CEOs lift the hood on how to pitch LPs on investment across Europe’s strategic pillars, explore the firm’s approach to evergreen capital and reveal their approach to attracting the continent’s best entrepreneurs.Given Europeans are sitting on EUR 35tn in savings, Bavière and Kadouch-Chassaing believe the opportunity to deploy to build new European champions is massive, with the EU’s focus on sovereignty a key card to play in a fractured geopolitical environment.

As 2026 kicks off, many GPs are beginning to assess exits for assets they purchased at peak valuation and with cheap debt in the 2020/2021 period. Sponsor entrances for that period were just shy of EUR 300bn, representing the busiest year ever for M&A.Rachel Lewis, Mergermarket’s co-head of news in Europe, has compiled a data report looking at the situation with this vintage class now that typical hold periods are coming to an end. Lewis joins Dealcast host Julie-Anna Needham to discuss how sponsors are attempting to realize liquidity, with around two-thirds of assets from that time still unrealized.This episode explores why conditions were so good in 2020/2021 and why the market hasn’t recovered from a subsequent dip in 2022. It looks into which sectors are doing well, like industrials and chemicals, and why investors are more “risk off” when it comes to software assets. They also discuss how successful exits have taken shape and the methods investors are using, including specialty deal terms, to bridge the valuation gap.This Dealcast answers questions such as: Why aren’t dual track processes as popular as they were expected to be at the start of year? Which particular deals stand out? How are geopolitics are impacting market conditions? And can LPs forgive a bad vintage?

Seema Hingorani, managing director and member of the Operating Committee at Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) talks to Lucinda Guthrie, executive editor at Mergermarket in this episode of Dealcast marking International Women’s Day.Investing “where nobody’s looking” opens up the prospect of making a “boatload of money”, and when this means allocating to diverse teams allocators are changing the world as they do this, Hingorani argues.Hingorani reflects on her own storied journey as an asset allocator from hedge fund entrepreneurship, through to her tenure until 2014 as CIO of New York City Retirement Systems, which had assets of USD 160bn to her current role at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.Struck by the lack of female talent within the industry, Hingorani noted the major opportunity cost not only for women who could build outstanding careers but also for investors lacking a range of perspectives for how to put their money to work.This observation led her to found Girls Who Invest in 2015, an institution that continues to build awareness of career pathways in the investment world and now counts 4,000 alumni across 200 universities.From talent development to retention and investor returns to public service, this episode is a fascinating insight into a major Wall Street player at the top of her game, who has created a movement that is attracting and training top female talent into the finance industry.

Around the world, many LPs are looking to diversify away from the US' recent instability. So how are investors viewing Asia and what is happening on the ground?The Asian Venture Capital Journal’s (AVCJ) managing editor Tim Burroughs joins AVCJ’s associate editor Justin Niessner to discuss what is driving investors to diversify into Asia and what challenges they face in the region.In this Dealcast, the two discuss how Asia is perceived as a market with good deals and less expensive valuations. For example, many firms are able to gain a foothold in the AI market at a lower price than they could in the US. Those comfortable with the geopolitics in China may see even more opportunities to diversify.This episode also explores: How sovereign wealth funds factoring into private equity in Asia. Whether Japan and India are still the favourites of the region. And how fund managers are viewing a pan-regional approach.

After the Trump administration revoked the 2009 Endangerment Finding that underpinned federal actions curbing greenhouse gases in February 2026, there is a sense that we are reaching a peak of anti-ESG sentiment.However, Professor Michel Driessen, director of Bayes Business School’s M&A Research Centre and chair of Queen’s Tower Advisory, argues environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues should be treated as a substantial business risk – and ignored at business owners’ peril.ESG policies are more than just the “E”, though the term has become highly politicized, with a heavy focus on the environmental aspects.Companies have gone from greenwashing a few years ago to “green hiding” today, making it difficult for investors to assess the financial value of ESG measures that are going underreported.At a time when anti-ESG sentiment feels rampant, Driessen, co-author of Green Gold: How Sustainability Creates Deal Value, joins Mergermarket’s global executive editor Lucinda Guthrie to discuss the importance of these measures in M&A.In this episode of Dealcast, the guests explore questions including: When will anti-ESG sentiment start to cool? How can AI support ESG reporting? And why are the palm oil industry and Boohoo such a good case studies for the complexities of ESG beyond just environmental standards?Green Gold: How Sustainability Creates Deal Value will be available from 26 February.

"This merger of policy and antitrust is not specific to the US. It's a global phenomenon,” says Jenn Mellott, managing partner at Freshfields working in both Washington DC and Brussels.What began five years ago - with the Biden administration’s broadening of antitrust to consider more than just what is best for the consumer - has become an increasingly popular strategy around the world to serve policy goals. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have been utilizing antitrust as a political tool to address different policy issues from labor issues to domestic supply chain concerns. In this week’s Dealcast, Mellott, who works on competition cases both sides of the pond and has represented companies such as Adobe, Starbucks, and AstraZeneca, joins Mergermarket’s global chief regulatory editor, Reuben Miller. Together they discuss how political agendas, alongside geopolitical tensions, are impacting dealmaking and driving the need for a strong global narrative in large transactions.The episode explores how international deals could face speedbumps with national governments that may be misaligned on initiatives, like ESG. The conversation dives into which countries, like the UK and China, are using their regulatory bodies to address local or regional policy priorities. Mellott and Miller also discuss the role of state attorneys general in the US, and how they are impacting deals in the Trump 2.0 administration. This Dealcast explores questions like: what is "America First" antitrust? Which sectors are facing increased regulatory scrutiny? How does foreign direct investment screening influence transactions? And what is the role of lobbyists in getting deal approvals?

“For the last three years, did you know -- that the secondary market’s been larger than the IPO market in terms of transaction volume?” that’s what Moelis & Company Managing Director Paul Sanabria said to showcase the immensely increased popularity of secondaries over the last couple of decades. The secondaries market of the 1970s looked quite different than it does today, originating then as an opportunistic solution for LP liquidity, with some of its early pioneers including VCFA, Landmark and Coller.In this week’s Dealcast, Tom Cane, Mergermarket’s funds editor is joined by Jeff Hammer and Paul Sanabria, Managing Directors at Moelis & Company’s private capital advisory group, where they help lead the firm’s global secondaries practice. They discuss how a niche, opportunistic corner of private markets has transformed into a sophisticated, multi‑strategy global capital market exceeding USD 220bn in annual volumes.The discussion charts the secondaries market journey from early LP‑driven trades, through the GP‑led restructurings of the 2010s, to today’s GP‑led “2.0” landscape defined by trophy assets, direct‑sponsor strategies, and a surge of new capital sources.The podcast also explores which direct sponsors are launching secondaries strategies like New Mountain and Warburg Pincus, as well as the traditional asset managers, like Blackstone, that are joining in.With answers to questions like: how does one define trophy assets? Are GP‑leds becoming standard exit paths alongside M&A and IPO? What could the next decade look like for secondaries?This episode is not one to miss.

“You can be much more ambitious” in driving global M&A transactions given a vibe shift in agency approaches to merger control, says James Webber, Chemicals & Industrials sector lead and antitrust partner at A&O Shearman. Following the abandonment of the Biden-era neo-Brandeisian settlement in the US; an embrace of industrial strategy and resilience building at the European Commission (EC); and a growth-focused reset at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, dealmakers can now embrace the “art of the possible”.In this week’s Dealcast, Webber joins John West, Mergermarket’s Global Commentary Editor, to discuss how the EC’s impending shake-up of its merger guidelines and a proposed structural overhaul at the CMA will define M&A prospects in the coming year.With agencies having to balance traditional consumer welfare concerns against growth imperatives and geopolitical risk management, merger parties will need to lay groundwork with regulators, consider the social and industrial dimensions of their deals, and engage with customers as never before if they want to move from audacious announcements to closed deals.Taking in European petrochemicals consolidation, the continent’s beleaguered steel industry and telecommunications mergers, this episode is a window into how regulatory moves both sides of the Channel will frame dealmaker decisions as they seek to realise the M&A pipeline.

Dealcast host Julie-Anna Needham is joined by Head of Americas Energy Carlos Martinez to break down the Venezuela angle and the mining consolidation wave, while Global Commentary Editor John West examines the broader geopolitical backdrop – and why deep‑tier supply chain due diligence is fast becoming a critical value‑creation lever for corporates and private equity.