The Russian attack on Ukraine has had an enormous geopolitical impact and an equally significant effect on the M&A market. Alongside ongoing disruptions in the global supply chain, rising inflation and increasing interest rates, the conflict is causing huge uncertainty among market players. Nevertheless, the European and German M&A markets have proven to be quite resilient so far. The long-term M&A outlook also remains promising.
Last year saw more than 11,600 M&A transactions with European targets valued at more than EUR 1,100bn and approx. 1,300 German target deals with a disclosed value of EUR 114bn.* Although this represents a significant decline of almost 44 per cent by value in German target deals compared to the previous record-breaking year, it is surprisingly solid given the current environment. Some key deal drivers, including digital transformation and ESG considerations, will continue to stimulate deal activity.
Overall, we see a large investor appetite for sustainable business models and those that enable sustainability. In addition to traditional investment in renewable energy companies, green tech is very popular - whether agricultural technology, recycling or sustainable mobility. In the wake of the current crisis, numerous companies are looking for energy independence and bringing the necessary expertise in-house for the sustainable transformation of their own business model through acquisitions.