M&A to salvage value. Companies that have been severely impacted by the crisis and are in a financially vulnerable position, will need to take decisive measures to secure their survival. Some will turn to portfolio optimisation to identify assets that lack strategic fit and could be divested. Others will take radical actions including distressed asset sales to salvage value from loss-generating divisions.

M&A to safeguard markets to maintain competitive parity. Companies where the impact has been less severe, will need to build financial resilience by extracting deep synergies from recent deals. Many will consider alliances or co-investment opportunities to reduce risk and capital outlay in their core business.

M&A to transform business and safeguard the future. Companies with a strong balance sheet but expecting a significant degree of structural disruption to their sector would use M&A to safe-guard their customer base and supply chain. While others will explore acquisitions and alliances to close gaps in their portfolio and accelerate long-term transformation to their business models.

M&A to change the game. A select few resilient and strategically well-placed companies should use M&A and other investment activities to capture unassailable market leadership. It would require alliances that includes both large specialist partners as well as start-ups from the innovation ecosystem. They also need to use M&A to acquire disruptive companies at the edge of their existing businesses and use those as the springboard to launch new offerings that will shape their sectors in the future.