Which global sectors are ripe for consolidation - and will investors benefit?

Dylan Ball, portfolio manager, Templeton Growth fund   Energy  In energy, the 50% fall in oil now requires all oil & gas companies to drastically cut their capex plans and we are seeing this across the sector. An efficient way to do this is to acquire a competitor where they overlap and cut even deeper into capex, which passes to shareholders as valuable acquisition synergies. This makes targets like BG even cheaper to the shareholders of Shell. Meanwhile, in healthcare, R&D breakthroughs have led to a rise in genetic drug approvals. This, combined with large unutilised cash balan...