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30 April, 2025
Beyond words goes here
Jonathan Simmons
Director
John Currie
Manager
In the first quarter of 2025, the Irish M&A market saw a total of 111 transactions, with disclosed deal values amounting to approximately €700 million. This represents a significant increase in deal volume compared to Q1 2024, which had 89 deals, and Q4 2024, which had 106 deals. However, the disclosed deal value saw a notable decrease compared to Q1 2024, primarily due to a low level of deals with disclosed transaction values (only 8%).
The most active sectors by volume during Q1 2025 were:
Global M&A activity in Q1 2025 reported a 27.4% increase in deal value to approximately €446 billion compared to €350 billion in Q1 2024. However, deal volume saw a 24.7% reduction, with 4,176 deals in Q1 2025 compared to 5,545 in Q1 2024. The overarching theme of volatility, marked by US trade policy decisions and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, led many corporates and private equity firms to reassess their M&A plans.
The “Trump Bump” which was expected to drive deal activity has not materialised, although some mega-deals took place, such as Alphabet’s $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz and a consortium led by BlackRock acquiring several global port operations from Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison for $19.2 billion.
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The European M&A landscape appears enticing to overseas buyers due to falling interest rates, attractive valuations compared to US peers, and a large backlog of historical deals. The largest deal reported in Europe was the Austria based integrated energy company OMV AG’s acquisition of a 64% stake in UAE based provider of polyolefin solutions Borouge plc from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for €15.8 billion.
The first quarter of 2025 has seen an uptick in deal volumes across Ireland but a significant reduction in disclosed deal values. It’s too early to say if this is part of wider trend caused by global uncertainty, but this will be clearer after Q2. Although deal activity will be influenced by global geopolitical tensions in 2025, it’s clear that Irish companies, particularly in the tech & telecoms, financial services and professional services sectors will continue to be attractive to international buyers and private equity.
Warning: This communication has been prepared and issued by Davy on the basis ofpublicly available information, internally developed data and other sources believed to be reliable. While all reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of this communication, we do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein. Any opinion expressed may be subject to change without notice.
Warning: This communication is a marketing communication prepared by a member of Davy Corporate Finance and is not investment research. This communication is not an offer to engage in transactions in specific financial instruments: does not constitute investment advice, does not constitute a personal recommendation and has been prepared without regards to the individual financial circumstances, needs or objectives of individual investors. This communication is provided for the sole benefit of clients of Davy Group and may not be reproduced, redistributed or transmitted, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Davy Group. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. This communication is directed to clients and prospective clients that are categorised as eligible counterparties or professional clients within the meaning of Directive 2014/65/EU on markets in financial instruments (MiFID II).
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