In the City of London, Britain has the most comprehensive financial sector in Europe and most commentators think the government, whoever wins the upcoming general election, will seek to retain that status in the Brexit discussions and that Britain will remain an open and transparent place to do business. In all, Krouskos thinks that elections can have a short-term impact on the appetite for corporate deals, but that longer-term issues involving rapid technological change and the threats posed by innovative start-ups are what really drive firms. According to EY's survey of 2,300 executives across 43 countries, the majority of whom are CEOs, 56 percent of companies expect to actively pursue deals in the next 12 months. Recent failures include the proposed $30 billion tie-up between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse and most dramatically Unilever's rebuff of a $143 billion approach from Kraft Heinz. [...] Rupert Murdoch's attempt to consolidate his media empire with Twenty-First Century Fox's purchase of Britain-based Sky is no done deal following the British government's decision to give regulators more time to weigh the matter because of the election. According to the survey, only 36 percent of companies now plan to focus on domestic deals in the next 12 months.