One third of companies planning acquisition in next year, according to Ernst & Young survey. According to a survey carried out by the consultancy firm Ernst & Young in September and October 2009, which interviewed some 500 management executives across the world, almost a third of the companies represented in the survey are planning acquisitions in the coming 12 months, although the majority of them predict funding difficulties for another three years. Furthermore, 25% of these businesses are ambitious enough to hope to carry out mergers in the next six months. Although the companies acknowledged that they had transaction opportunities, 62% believe that these will be limited by a number of factors, including finance issues. Another finding of the investigation is that actions focusing on shoring up bread-and-butter activities make up the lion's share of these transactions. More specifically, 64% of the companies are planning acquisitions for this purpose and 50% of the executives are planning external growth to allow them to penetrate new geographical markets. Half of these executives cited the United States as the most attractive destination among the more developed economies. Additionally, India (30%) and China (27%) head the list of the emerging countries. Some 63% of respondents also anticipate an acceleration in the consolidation of the industry over the coming 12 months and 61% are of the opinion that the current slowdown in the economy will help the emergence of new industry leaders, which will be the ones which have been able to take advantage of acquisition opportunities. Lastly, although confidence that mergers and acquisitions will pick up again is on the increase, scepticism is rife when it comes to the end of the economic crisis: 70% expect the downturn to continue beyond the next 12 months and 40% of these believe that recovery lies more than two years hence. As regards funding conditions, 53% of respondents believe that it will take at least three years for these to get back to mid-2007 levels and 19% that it will take in excess of five years, and possibly never fully recover. (I.L./trans.fl)