A U.S. tax holiday on repatriation of overseas cash could boost merger and acquisitions activity among U.S. industrial giants, by providing the ammunition for multinationals to go after bigger targets, industrial M&A bankers said on Tuesday. Although U.S. industrial companies like General Electric Co (GE.N), Danaher Corp (DHR.N) and Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) have announced large deals in recent months, their appetite could be further whetted if their large foreign tax holdings could be brought back to the United States at low tax rates, bankers told the Reuters Global Mergers and Acquisitions Summit in New York. "A lot of cash is offshore. A tax holiday or some other kind of reprieve on repatriation I think would be useful," said Andy Lipsky, head of M&A for the Americas at Credit Suisse.
Source
