PwC
Jeremy Fago is PwC’s leader on U.S. Energy, Utilities and Mining Deals.
Readers of PUF are fortunate to have the wisdom of Jeremy Fago, PwC's leader on U.S. Energy, Utilities and Mining Deals, a regular on these pages, who comes in and updates us on the financial goings on in the energy and utilities industry. It's like taking the pulse.
PUF looked back at our conversation with him in our March 2020 issue, with a discussion of goings on prior to the pandemic hitting, when all seemed normal, when we didn't know of the trouble lurking. Indeed, that cover story was the New Jersey Commission, visited in person.
Jump ahead to our September 2020 talk and it is titled, M&A Amid Masks, aptly named, as we were struggling with the pandemic and Jeremy explained what it meant for M&A. Here he updates us, with a tale of two halves in 2020, as he calls it. Read on to see what that means going forward.
PUF's Steve Mitnick: What does your latest M&A analysis say about M&A activity?
Jeremy Fago: It's been a tale of two halves for 2020. Last time we spoke, we were at mid-year, and it was an anemic deal market for obvious reasons. We had COVID-19 set in this past March, which caused a big internal refocus by most companies, to forecast what this all meant, and manage the cash flow and things related to ensure that the balance sheet was sound.