M&A Financing and What the Future Might Hold 
Building on recent Summits in which panels discussed M&A activity in the sector, trends and challenges, and what might lie ahead in the next three to five years, including pre-regulated jurisdictions and those in the early stages of regulation.  In this panel, we reflect on their predictions, the deal drought in the face of inflation and rapidly increasing interest rates and look ahead to consider what lies ahead in 2024 and 2025, and what the future holds on financing mergers or acquisitions of public or private companies when interest rates decrease. Some of the specific themes the panel will consider include the potential for traditional distributed gaming companies to acquire “skill” companies if regulation shifts and they start to be taxed and regulated given recent court rulings find that they’re legal,  a discussion on how interest rates are affecting the M&A market, consideration of what might replace SPACs and a look at the reasons they failed so quickly, and speculating on whether 2020 will be a banner year for gaming supplier market consolidation.

Moderated by Donna More, a Partner with Fox Rothschild, the panelists include:

Reza Akhavi, Managing Director, Deutsche Bank Securities Real Estate, Gaming, Lodging & Leisure

David Berman, Head of Consumer, Gaming and Leisure, Macquarie Capital

Katie Lever, General Counsel, Chief Privacy Officer and Corporate Secretary, Great Canadian Entertainment

Paul Richardson, Partner, Partis

Daniel Vyravipillai, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Investment Banking Division