Highlights from The Deal's Eleventh Annual Dealmaking Outlook Event at the New York Stock Exchange

NEW YORK, Dec. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Deal, TheStreet's (NASDAQ:TST) institutional business, hosted its eleventh annual forecasting event, The Deal Economy: Predictions & Perspectives for 2014. Held at the New York Stock Exchange on December 5, the invitation-only event gathered some of the most influential members of the deal community for a series of discussions on the key trends and issues confronting dealmakers in 2014.

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Videos from the event are available online. Below are some highlights from panels and speakers throughout the day:

Jeffrey Kanige, Editor in Chief, The Deal in his opening remarks:
"Some executives are pursuing less risky strategies to keep investors happy. This trepidation accounts for the prevalence of share buybacks, dividends and refinancing deals...All indicators point to an environment ripe for dealmaking —liquidity in the markets is at a high, interest rates on borrowing remain near historic lows, the stock market is booming and companies are flush with cash."

Stefan M. Selig, Executive Vice Chairman, Global Corporate & Investment Banking, Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the "Sense of the Markets: Confidence Makes a Comeback" panel:
"With big deals - clearly there is an ability to get those deals done. Given the Verizon financing, one of the things we were all surprised with...was how much institutional appetite there was to do deals of that size and I think there was always some concern and trepidation about the ability to do big deals. I think that's now off the table. So CEO's and boards that want to do deals of size...can absolutely do them and they are actually, potentially, if well-structured and strategic, going to be well received. I think the one thing you are unlikely to see are big deals in the leverage buyout space. The $20-$30 billion deals we saw before the financial crisis might be a historical artifact."

Peter Orszag, Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking, Chairman of the Public Sector Group and Chairman of the Financial Strategy and Solutions Group, Citigroup, Inc. in his on-stage keynote conversation:
"There's no doubt that interest rates are going to be higher in 2014 and 2015 than they are today. Both because of tapering and because of the underlying motivation for the taper which is that the economy will be, in all likelihood, a bit stronger in 2014 than it is this year. Top line growth will be higher."

James Rickards, Author, "Currency Wars;" Senior Managing Director, Tangent Capital Partners in the "Capital Calls: Liquidity Lowdown – a Fluid Situation" panel:
"We all know that bubbles and Ponzi's are two different things. China is managing to have both at the same time. China is having a bubble financed with a Ponzi... there will be some event... and everyone will show up to get their money back and it will be like 2008 in China. I do think the government can contain it. When you have $3 trillion in reserves you can bail out a lot of banks without it becoming worldwide contagion. But, if they have to, at the margin, reduce purchases or sell treasuries to bail out their banking system, that could have a very negative impact on the U.S."

James J. Cramer, Host, "Mad Money w/Jim Cramer" & Co-Anchor, "Squawk on the Street," CNBC; Founder, TheStreet Inc. in a special keynote address:
"We now have a market that looks sublime and placid on the surface, but underneath lurks a seething Washington bear. A bear hibernates then springs up every few months to wreak havoc on stocks...the markets have become a bucolic farmer's field to make hay when the sun shines except when the hidden landmines of Washington appear underfoot and blow up those who have been lulled into the thinking that all is well in the Republic."

Oliver Niedermaier, Chairman and CEO, Tau Investment Management in the "Sector Showdown: Meet the Distruptors" panel:
"When you look at this race to the bottom today, everybody is squeezed for margin. Obviously you have the short-termism on the retail and fashion side...all dripping down into this supply chain where these factory owners are absolutely starved of capital, have no expertise, have no access to western buyers and are just trying to get through somehow. Obviously they are cutting corners...it leads to huge inefficiencies and huge tragedies. How can you turn that around into a race to the top? We think fairly easily if you inject a couple of things including capital into these situations. Because if you make these manufacturers more efficient, more compliant, more reliant, more scalable ultimately everybody's going to want to source from them...By investing capital, expertise, and access to Western buyers...you can change completely the dynamics."

Robert L. Nardelli, former chairman and CEO, The Home Depot and Chrysler LLC; founder and CEO, XLR-8, an investment and advisory company, in the closing keynote conversation:
"If you think about the energy business and the innovation on horizontal drilling with fracking – probably the most disruptive technology of the decade...because I think the energy industry created 1.6 million jobs, it's contributed over $62 billion in city, state, federal taxes. The average worker on a fracking rig is averaging $94,000 a year. So if you want to gain energy independence, you want to boost the economy, and therefore be able to create jobs, that's a sweet spot to be in right now."

Supporting underwriters for The Deal Economy included Ernst & Young, Pepper Hamilton, McKinsey & Company, William Blair and W.P. Carey.  CNBC was the official broadcast partner for the event.

For sponsorship & speaking inquiries about next year's event, please contact Emily Newman (212-321-5565; [email protected]).

About The Deal
The Deal, a business unit of TheStreet, has been serving corporate dealmakers, advisers and institutional investors the most sophisticated analysis of the deal economy since 1999. Our transaction information service, The Deal Pipeline, is powered by a newsroom of senior journalists who offer proprietary research and reporting across M&A, bankruptcies, auctions and financings. It includes a breaking news service, First Take; daily and weekly sector newsletters; The Daily Deal, a 2x daily report of the day's top stories; a research center with over a decade's worth of intelligence and a database of over 100,000 deals; and an iPad & iPhone app. Our marketing & media services group produces the industry's leading forecasting event, The Deal Economy, held annually in New York City in addition to industry webcasts and integrated marketing programs. For more information, visit www.thedeal.com

CONTACT:
Emily Schneider
212.321.5521
[email protected]

SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.