The mergers and acquisitions market faced a challenging environment in the past several years. Reduced capital availability, coupled with a gradual decline in the economy, resulted in the weakest M&A market since 1996. while the economy has softened, the M&A market is still strong on an historical basis.Lessons and success stories from many of those mergers, as well as a dearth of remaining " finance plays," require that today's mergers be thoroughly understood from the perspective of business strategy and real economic value creation.

ARA believes that the following years will usher in a revived level of M&A activity, albeit not to levels of the late 1990s. Monetary and fiscal stimulus should begin to harvest modest growth. Economic and capital availability will create more enthusiasm in the M&A market, more competition for deals resulting in some multiple expansion. With the desire for higher valuations, many companies and financial sponsors will again turn to M&A market for liquidity.

Relying on a clear and disciplined approach to the acquisition processt, We help
clients pursue a change-of-control M&A transaction and increase their value. Fre
quently, our established relationships with clients enable us to better understan
d the strategic justification behind acquisitions, as well as assess the capabili
ties and attitudes of management with respect to a potential deal.

Finally, the source of information, strategic reasoning, objective analytics and
our experience enable us to provide clients with a valuable understanding of typ
ical deal structures, common pitfalls and capital market implications.