Bankers say U.S. antitrust concerns weigh on deal activity

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Anti-trust concerns are preventing corporations from pursuing mergers more than other broad regulatory or economic issues, several senior investment bankers said during a panel on Tuesday at the Milken Institute's Global Conference.

"It's that increasingly high bar that we're seeing from an anti-trust perspective," said Paul Stefanick, Deutsche Bank AG's head of corporate and investment banking in the Americas. Companies are "worried about how to calibrate the impact of what might need to be divested."

Stefanick said doubts about whether deals can pass muster with anti-trust regulators are a bigger barrier to deals than uncertainties like the outcome of November's U.S. election.

U.S. merger activity is down 22 percent so far this year through April 28, according to Thomson Reuters data. Globally, M&A activity is down 12 percent.

Stefanick pointed to several deals that have recently fallen apart, including this week's dashed $28 billion merger of oilfield services companies Baker Hughes Inc and Halliburton Co . The deal was canceled due to opposition from U.S. and European antitrust regulators, who worried about the proposed merger's influence on prices.

In December, General Electric Co called off a $3.3 billion agreement to sell its appliances business to Sweden's Electrolux AB , after months of pushback from U.S. antitrust regulators.

Failed acquisitions can be time-consuming and expensive, with break-up fees and disappointed shareholders. After formulating a business strategy around a large merger that fails, it can also be tough for management teams to figure out their next steps.

"It's devastating to these companies when they go through years of antitrust review," said Robin Rankin, managing director and co-head of global mergers and acquisitions at Credit Suisse Group AG . "It's a tough situation to put back together."

(Reporting by Olivia Oran; Editing by Dan Grebler)