Wall Street greets Trump's return with greed and trepidation
Deregulation, lower taxes, softer antitrust stance expected
Some bankers told to get the ball rolling on deals
Trade tariffs, national debt and potential for chaotic policy are concerns
By Milana Vinn, Echo Wang and Nupur Anand
NEW YORK, Nov 7 (Reuters) -Wall Street executives by and large are looking forward to business-friendly regulations as they analyze the implications of a second Donald Trump presidency, while some bankers were immediately tasked with discussing potential deals.
Trump's return to power is likely to significantly ease some of the regulatory pressures industries have seen under the Biden administration, executives across banks and private equity said.
Smaller government, broad deregulation as well as tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy are widely expected. In particular, a softer stance on antitrust and less regulation in areas such as banking and cryptocurrencies could boost corporate profits and spur deal flow, they said.
"He is pro-business and anti-regulation," said Euan Rellie, co-founder and managing partner of investment bank BDA Partners. "His instincts are to cut taxes. All of that will help the M&A market."
"So long as he governs with moderation and not with chaos, the markets will welcome him," said Rellie.
That, some of the executives said, however, was not a given, and tempered the optimism.
Some bankers worried about how to navigate unpredictable shifts in government policy, the impact of trade tariffs, a potentially perilous fiscal path that adds trillions of dollars to the national debt as well as about the potential tightening of visa programmes.
For now, though, the reaction was euphoric. As U.S. stocks rallied sharply, one equity capital markets banker who declined to be named said his colleagues had got fresh mandates Wednesday morning as well as an opportunity to pitch for an initial public offering. The message was, "let's get the ball rolling," the banker said.
An investment banker who works at a global firm in New York also said that his firm had an internal call to discuss deals, including possibly revisiting some transactions that may have not passed regulatory scrutiny under Lina Khan's Federal Trade Commission in the Biden administration.
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A more lenient approach to antitrust issues could boost dealmaking in many sectors. Two sources with knowledge of the media industry said the sector was in for a period of consolidation over the next two years.
Greg Hertrich, head of U.S. depository strategies at Nomura, said the banking industry could see more mergers, too. "The current number of 4,700 banks in the U.S. may be reduced to around 2,500 faster," he said.
Large financial deals will have more chance of being greenlighted. Shares of payments firms Capital One COF.N and Discover Financial Services DFS.N, awaiting approval of a $35.3 billion deal, surged.
"It is expected that the Trump administration will be more open to sensible M&As than many believe has been the case under the Biden administration," said Gene Ludwig, a former top bank regulator who now advises financial institutions as CEO of Ludwig Advisors.
For banks, one of the biggest questions now is how stringent new Basel capital standards are going to be.
Ed Mills, an analyst at Raymond James, said the turnover of regulators as the new administration comes in will "stall the bank regulatory super cycle that has existed over the last couple of years."
"We are unlikely to see any major bank regulation come out and all of this paints a very favorable picture for the banks," said Mills.
MANY WORRIES
Not everyone was celebrating, however. A lawyer who works with renewable energy companies said he'd been on the phone with despondent clients all day. They were all trying to reach local Republican politicians in districts where they have planned projects, seeking assurances that tax credits and incentives under Biden's push for green energy would continue.
At one Wall Street firm, a meeting included conversation about the risk of deficits rising under a Trump administration, one source said. One estimate sees his policies adding $7.5 trillion to deficits over 10 years.
The hope among the participants was Trump's aides would encourage him not to go to extremes with tariffs and tax cuts, said the source.
Other concerns hit more on a personal level, such as safeguarding non-U.S. staff. In Trump's first term, he took steps to tighten access to some visa programs, including a suspension of many work visas during the COVID pandemic.
A private equity investor in New York said one issue that came up on Wednesday was questions from international employees on H-1B visas about whether they would face difficulties renewing their visas and how their employer could support them.
Reporting by Milana Vinn, Echo Wang, Kane Wu, Nupur Anand, Tatiana Bautzer, Saeed Azhar, Lananh Nguyen, Dawn Chmielewski and Iain Withers; Writing by Megan Davies; Editing by Edwina Gibbs
නවතම පුවත්
වියාචනය: XM Group සමාගම් ක්රියාත්මක කිරීම පමණක් වන සේවා සපයන අතර වෙබ් අඩවියේ හෝ වෙබ් අඩවිය හරහා ලබා ගත හැකි අන්තර්ගතය බැලීමට සහ/හෝ භාවිත කිරීමට පුද්ගලයෙකුට ඉඩ සලසමින් අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකම වෙත ප්රවේශය ලබා දෙන අතර වෙනස් කිරීමට හෝ පුළුල් කිරීමට අදහස් නොකරයි. එවැනි ප්රවේශය සහ භාවිතය සෑම විටම (i) නියමයන් සහ කොන්දේසි, (ii) අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම් සහ (iii) සම්පූර්ණ වියාචනයට යටත් වේ. එබැවින් එවැනි අන්තර්ගතයක් සාමාන්ය තොරතුරුවලට වඩා වැඩි යමක් සපයා නොමැත. විශේෂයෙන්ම, අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ අන්තර්ගතය පෙළඹවීමක් හෝ මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළවල කිසිදු ගනුදෙනුවක් සිදු කිරීමට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් නොවන බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න. ඕනෑම මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළක වෙළඳාම් කිරීම ඔබේ ප්රාග්ධනයට සැලකිය යුතු අවදානමක් එක් කරයි.
අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ ප්රකාශිත සියලු කරුණු අධ්යාපනික/තොරතුරුමය අරමුණු සඳහා පමණක් අදහස් කෙරෙන අතර මූල්ය, ආයෝජන බදු හෝ වෙළඳ උපදෙස් සහ නිර්දේශයන්; හෝ අපගේ වෙළඳ මිල පිළිබඳ වාර්තාවක්; හෝ ඕනෑම මූල්ය උපකරණයක ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් හෝ ඒ සඳහා පෙළඹවීමක්; හෝ විශේෂ ඉල්ලීමකින් තොරව ඔබ වෙත ලබා දෙන ලද මූල්ය ප්රවර්ධනයන් ලෙස නොසැලකිය යුතුය.
ඕනෑම තෙවන පාර්ශවීය අන්තර්ගතයක් මෙන්ම XM විසින් සකසන ලද අන්තර්ගතය එනම් අදහස්, පුවත්, පර්යේෂණ, විශ්ලේෂණ, මිල ගණන් සහ වෙනත් තොරතුරු හෝ මෙම වෙබ් අඩවියේ අන්තර්ගත තෙවන පාර්ශවීය වෙබ් අඩවි සඳහා සබැඳි සාමාන්ය වෙළඳපොළ විවරණයක් ලෙස "පවතින පරිදි" සපයා ඇති අතර එහි ආයෝජන උපදෙස් ඇතුළත් නොවේ. ඕනෑම අන්තර්ගතයක් ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයක් ලෙස අර්ථ දක්වා ඇති ප්රමාණයට, ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයේ ස්වාධීනත්වය ප්රවර්ධනය කිරීමට නිර්මාණය කර ඇති නෛතික අවශ්යතාවලට අනුකූලව අන්තර්ගතය සකසා නොමැති බවත් එලෙස අරමුණු කර නොමැති බවත් ඔබ සලකා පිළිගත යුතු අතර එබැවින් එය අදාළ නීති සහ රෙගුලාසි යටතේ අලෙවිකරණ සන්නිවේදනයක් ලෙස සලකනු ලැබේ. ඉහත සඳහන් තොරතුරු සලකා මෙතනින් ප්රවේශ විය හැකි, ස්වාධීන නොවන ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණ සහ අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම පිළිබඳ අපගේ දැනුම්දීම ඔබ කියවා තේරුම් ගෙන ඇති බව සහතික කර ගන්න.
