M&A from Home: London’s Mergers and Acquisitions Sector
During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic and UK lockdowns led to an abrupt, overnight shift in the workplace practices and processes for thousands of investment bankers and other professionals (“Practitioners”) in the London-based Mergers and Acquisitions (“M&A”) sector. Previously embedded in the socio-cultural networks, offices, and public spaces of the City of London’s financial districts, the M&A market was transplanted to the private, domestic realm as Practitioners were required to work from their homes.

Using a cultural economy approach to the geographies of money and finance, this thesis examines how the socio-technical arrangements of human and non-human actors were reshaped as M&A assemblages adapted to working from home. Analysis foregrounds the incorporation of screens and video-based communication software into M&A to enable meetings between Practitioners and clients, and the continuation and evolution of social networks. Additionally, this thesis examines how a once-in-a-generation global event led to sudden changes and reimagining of daily processes, movements and behaviours of M&A Practitioners. Such socio-technical and cultural adaptations allowed for the continuation of domestic and international M&A markets during the pandemic, including the origination and execution of M&A transactions worth billions of pounds and involving thousands of individuals. The pace and scale of change was unprecedented in the sector, and the thesis highlights its lasting impact on London’s M&A sector.