Things were fairly slow in the world of corporate dealmaking last year. Globally, the total value of mergers and acquisitions was the lowest since 2013, according to Dealogic.

But this week, Goldman Sachs — a bank that does a lot of advising on M&A deals — said it expects the dealmaking environment to pick up this year.

Even though there haven’t been that many actual deals recently, “the conversations are taking place,” said Stephen Biggar with Argus Research.

Those conversations have been focusing on the health care industry, tech and clean energy, he said.

For instance? “A smaller biotech firm may have made some unique discovery, and that makes them a compelling acquisition target,” said Biggar.

A big reason those deals haven’t been happening is that rising interest rates have made it costlier to buy a company.

If interest rates tick down, however, “many of the deals that might be sort of being thought about or considered right now might start to come more to fruition,” said Emilie Feldman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

But volatile equity markets are still making it harder for companies to use their own stock for acquisitions, Feldman said. Plus, regulatory scrutiny of corporate deals has been ratcheting up.

“Do companies even consider certain transactions, knowing that the environment is going to be more difficult from the perspective of getting those deals through?” she said.

If we do see a pickup in activity, Feldman added that it’ll probably come in the second half of this year.

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