Renesas Electronics’ Natasha Davidson: Lower rates to ease borrowing costs

Natasha Davidson, Deputy General Counsel, Software Digitalization for Renesas Electronics (a global leader in the semiconductor industry headquartered in Tokyo, Japan) has a different perspective on deal markets. Renesas is a high growth company that has been involved in significant M&A activity including its recent $9 billion acquisition of Altium as one of the largest Australian deals in 2024. 

In this excerpt from our 2025 ANZ Women In Dealmaking M&A Outlook Report, which features insights from 12 of Australia’s leading female dealmakers, Natasha shares her perspective on the intersection of technology, finance, and regulation in the world of mergers and acquisitions.

Natasha has had an extraordinary deal making career in investment banking, in private practice and as a senior executive leading the M&A lifecycle from structuring and execution to integration and strategic realisation. She sees a variation in the outlook for global markets.

“Over the next 12 months, North America will continue to be a strong market for M&A activity, while the rest of the world will be neutral to positive, except for Japan, which will be positive both inbound and outbound. In Australia, we will see a modest increase in M&A activity attributable in part to anticipated cash rate cuts and some deal acceleration in the second half of the year prior to the introduction of the mandatory ACCC notification regime.”

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is implementing a new mandatory and suspensory merger control regime, which will come into effect in January 2026. It means certain mergers and acquisitions must be notified to the ACCC and receive clearance before they can be completed. Before this mandatory regime, Australia operated under a voluntary informal clearance process, where parties could choose to notify the ACCC of a merger, but it was not required.

The new regime represents a significant change and requires notifications for mergers that meet specific monetary thresholds and prohibits these mergers to complete without ACCC approval. Turning to the major themes for the year, Natasha identifies energy transition and digitalization – her natural habitat – as two key drivers of M&A activity.

“There will be further momentum towards renewable energy leading to more activity for energy assets. The fossil fuel bridge will impact capital flows and acquisition finance. On digitization, the search for alpha returns in the digital space will continue to be a powerful driver of M&A, maintaining a trend we have seen in recent years.”

The sectors that will be attractive in 2025 will include SaaS, financial services and energy with investor appetite increasing. Like many of her peers, Natasha expects the pipeline of private equity transactions in both deployments and exits to remain very strong. In terms of ‘black swan’ events, she is mindful that the stock market may be ahead of itself in terms of valuations in certain sectors.

Further inflationary pressures may cause central banks to increase rates combined with continued digital disruption. Natasha says AI is an emerging tool that will continue to be applied to due diligence and document drafting. It offers considerable potential for execution efficiencies.

“On the financing side, any easing of rates is going to be positive for dealmaking,” she says. Regarding due diligence priorities, she highlights a growing focus on supply chain considerations for larger assets and, with further regulatory changes being introduced, having a team of advisers and in-house professionals adapting to these changes will be critical for the design and execution of cross-border deals. Natasha says the variety in dealmaking keeps her engaged in the work. “Dealmaking is not “add water and stir”.

While certain aspects are relatively predictable and stable, dealmaking requires an ability to be agile if new or unexpected conditions emerge – be they market, regulatory or counterparty based. No two deals will be the same.” She explains the work lends itself to strategic creativity. “Dealmaking dovetails with the prevailing economic landscape. The legal underpinnings of deal making do not operate in a vacuum. I have learnt that dealmaking is dependent on market and economic conditions, which consistently influences deal timing and structure.”

She also enjoys the unpredictable nature of the work. “I enjoy the ideation that comes with dealmaking. It requires an element of entrepreneurialism. Having a successful M&A program requires not only establishing and navigating workstreams but imagining, evidencing and harnessing the benefits of the target asset. The positives of deal making – especially when you are acquiring assets – must be evidenced to stakeholders and propel the macro strategy. While there is pressure here, I find this incredibly rewarding.” 

Natasha says there are more opportunities for women to become involved in the front end of deals today. “My generation can pave the way for those who follow. I was fortunate to benefit from those who preceded me although there were fewer women when I started compared to today. We have an opportunity to make future opportunities real, rich and tangible and I am committed to doing this.”