Macquarie Asset Management Says Merger Activity Set to Pick Up

The deals market is ripe for a rebound after a protracted slump, according to the head of Macquarie Asset Management.

There’s “a lot of dry powder,” Ben Way said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. “It is picking up this year.”

After absorbing the initial shock of higher interest rates, markets are now “retooling their business cases,” which is leaving buyers and sellers with a more realistic starting point for discussions, Way said.

Ben Way during a Bloomberg Television interview, on March 4.

Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

“Free money is not normal,” he said. “All investors have to recalibrate round what is an appropriate capital structure” and “people probably got ...