No worst-case scenario for mergers and acquisitions

In the second part of this exclusive video interview – filmed at this year’s Food Manufacture​ Business Leaders’ Forum, sponsored by law firm DW​​F – Black explored the benefits of the UK leaving the EU with or without a deal next month.

‘Economy absolutely flying’​

“I don’t know what a worst-case scenario is,”​ said Black. “In terms of how our relationships with the wider world pan out, if there is a deal organised with the EU relatively quickly, that is quite orderly, I could see the UK economy absolutely flying. We shouldn’t forget that the UK economy is trundling along, when the European economy is going backwards at pace.​

“Equally, if there is no deal, although there’s a lot of fog around that, the world will go on. People will adapt to it, businesses will adapt to it and, therefore, there will be M&A activity after ​[Brexit].” ​

Black pointed out that, should the pound further decrease in value compared with the US dollar and Japanese yen, international investors would become more and more interested in M&A activity in the UK.

Twists and turns​

“Each twist and turn of the Brexit situation is hard to call,”​ he added. “It’s a hugely frustrating situation that business and consumers are looking into with increasing simmering anger, but regardless of what happens after 29 March, there will be M&A activity.” ​

Meanwhile, watch the first part of this exclusive interview here​​​and look out for more coverage from this year’s Business Leaders’ Forum in next month’s issue of Food Manufacture​​​​ magazine and online.

Music: Tech Live Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/