US companies struck more than $80bn worth of deals over the past 24 hours, the latest sign that the openness of Donald Trump’s administration to large mergers and acquisitions is reviving consolidation across some of the country’s biggest industries.
In a flurry of all-stock deals announced on Monday morning, American Water Works Company and Essential Utilities will combine to form a utilities giant with an enterprise value of $63bn and Huntington Bancshares agreed a $7.4bn takeover of midsize Southern lender Cadence Bank.
Late on Sunday, Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis struck a deal to buy Avidity Bioscience, attaching an enterprise value of $11bn to the rare disease-focused biotech. In total, the three deals unveiled before Monday totalled $81.4bn in combined enterprise value.