Standard & Poor’s to assess impact of European telecom mergers at TMT M&A Forum in London

March 16, 2015 - PRLog -- Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service, the world's leading provider of independent credit risk research and benchmarks, will make the opening keynote speech at TMT M&A Forum 2015 in London on March 19, addressing the impact of mergers and acquisitions in telecoms, media and technology sectors across Europe.

Mark Habib, Director, Standard and Poor’s, will present the opening keynote speech entitled: “Playing offense and defense in European M&A – The risks and rewards” at the event, which gathers senior executives from telecoms, media and tech companies, investment bankers, investors and advisers globally.

This year’s TMT M&A Forum takes place during a surge in merger and acquisition activity and record attendance is expected, with over 60 speakers announced.

“With the hot pace of M&A in Europe, we will address which stakeholders stand to gain the most, and who is looking to shore up weaknesses,” said Habib.  “Will MVNOs and mobile-only operators be able to compete in an increasingly converged and data-driven market? Will content plays fuel the next wave? How could net neutrality affect the economics of M&A? And what are the credit implications?,” he added.

Habib will also chair a break out round table discussion session on “Financing TMT– How will access to capital affect deals?” which features global and regional TMT heads from Citi, Credit Agricole, ING, Huawei and Silicon Valley Bank.

The session will assess the impact of TMT sector consolidation on TMT bank financing, evaluate trends for measuring TMT financing appetite, and consider whether bank debt still a viable financing product with sufficient liquidity in the CLO/bond markets.

TMT M&A Forum 2015, which is produced by global news and events provider TMT Finance, features 15 leadership panel discussions, as well as a series of keynote presentations and break out networking sessions assessing how transactions are driving change in the sector.

Corporations represented by speakers at this year’s event include Liberty Global, Accelero Capital, Etisalat, Telefonica, Virgin Media, BSkyB, CityFibre, Ooredoo, Cisco, Microsoft, Six Degrees Group, Telekom Austria, ABRY Partners, Antin Infrastructure, Arcus Infrastructure, Black Green Capital, Digital World Capital, Eaton Towers, AlixPartners, Arma Partners, Citi, Credit Agricole, FTI Consulting, JP Morgan, Lazard Frères, Linklaters, Macquarie Capital, Index Ventures, ING Commercial Banking, PwC, Standard & Poor’s, Huawei and Silicon Valley Bank.

TMT M&A Forum 2015 (http://www.tmtfinance.com/merger) takes place at Millennium Mayfair, London on March 19.

Find out more at http://www.tmtfinance.com/merger

Contact enquiries@tmtfinance.com