Dealmakers Get Brexit Blues in ‘Biggest Demerger in History’

By Ruth David, Aaron Kirchfeld, and Dinesh Nair, Bloomberg News

European dealmakers hoping today would open the floodgates for mergers and share sales are bracing for a longer drought.

Britain’s decision to leave the European Union “will be the biggest demerger in history,” Richard Cranfield, a corporate partner at Allen & Overy LLP, said. “A healthy M&A market is strongly driven by confidence. Given the period of uncertainty we’ve just entered following the leave vote, it is likely we will see a significant slowdown in M&A.”

Takeovers of European companies declined 27 percent to $251 billion through ...