Bank of America's Mensah sees deals slowdown as investors wait for Trump

Bank of America's International President Bernard Mensah says the bank sees a slowdown in mergers and acquisitions as corporate leaders wait to see in which direction US President Donald Trump will take the world economy. The Bank of America Global Investor Summit opens in Dubai on Monday night, the first time the gathering of the bank executives and chief executive clients has been convened in the region. High-level speakers, exclusive panels and sideline meetings at the two-day event are expected to drive deals in the months ahead. Speaking to The National , Mr Mensah discussed the coming direction of the global economy as Mr Trump takes the reins and promises a bargaining approach to rebalancing trade alongside an April decision on imposing tariffs. The effect so far for Bank of America’s clients has been to pause, and a historically significant drop in mergers and acquisitions in the first weeks of 2025. “M&A flows globally, not just in the US, have been lower than historical [records] and lower than people expected,” Mr Mensah says. “The actual level of M&A this January was lower than most, let alone expectations of higher – I would expect that pipeline to come back and be executed upon once boardrooms are more confident and have more visibility. “I think that quite reasonably a lot of boardrooms are saying let's see how things settle down because if we're in a high tariff environment or not, or if we’re subject to trade wars or not, we might get some things done but first we need to have a better sense of the playing field." The search for deals in the GCC countries at least comes against a positive backdrop of plentiful capital reserves and corporate hunger for new ventures that can boost rates of return. Mr Mensah says the region has many positives to offer. “There's a huge amount of excess savings in the world, particularly in the [Gulf] region,” he says, adding that the Dubai summit can unlock cross-border co-operation. “I think the really powerful thing about these events is the leveraging effect. The capital in the region is important and we want to have a sense of what that capital is thinking in Dubai. These investors are a very powerful group; they will be informed by the immediate location they are in and then combine it with a very global perspective.” Bank of America has been expanding its footprint in response to the regional reform agendas. “We’ve been looking to deepen relationships in recent years through our offices in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and we’ve been increasing our head count,” Mr Mensah said. “We see more activity in the region with our ability to provide services to corporates that are investing there and to manage their corporate affairs. We have a strong trading equities business and beyond that our ability to provide excellent research is very important.” Bank of America dates its presence in the region to offering banking services before the establishment of the UAE as a nation in 1971. It has steadily grown its platforms and, according to Mr Mensah, has been in expansion mode in recent years. One of the hot topics at the summit is poised to be the forecast global boom in demand for energy. The opportunity to listen to regional insights on how this will play out will be a highlight of the trip for Mr Mensah, a London-based former fixed incomes trader. “We can't persist with the old equation of energy demand and supply, can we?” he asks. “Going forward there will be much increased demand for energy and specialist demand for energy related to some of the emerging technologies. I see the non-specialists in the room wanting to have a more complex, more sophisticated dialogue around energy.” Much of this rising demand is related to the big theme of 2024 going into 2025, which is forecasts around AI innovation spreading across the wider economy and how adoption of data-driven technology can transform productivity across the workplace. “There is a lot of demand emanating from the upside created by the technology innovations that have taken place,” Mr Mensah says. Balancing that cause for optimism is the shared uncertainty around policies coming out of Washington. Yet he can also foresee a transformative period ahead. “I am pretty certain that the new administration is interested in higher trend growth for the US and for the global economy,” he says. “Their aim is to do that with a lower debt burden and a lower debt profile for the United States and a more efficient economy. “They have a big vested interest in global trade continuing, to do well and grow. One has to assume that when the dust settles, they will be working to leave us with architecture that is more viable for the US economy.”

Bank of America's Mensah sees deals slowdown as investors wait for Trump

A sense of the 'new playing field' is needed as global bank chiefs arrive in Dubai for annual global summit