The report offers a comprehensive assessment of dealmaking sentiment in Europe’s M&A market and reflects the opinions of 330 corporates and PE firms based in Europe, the Americas and APAC, about their expectations for European M&A in the year ahead.

Key findings of the report include:

• M&A expectations run high: 73% of deal makers expect the level of European M&A activity to increase over the next 12 months, compared to just 53% last year. Almost all respondents (88%) are currently considering M&A.
• Undervalued targets and distressed sales to drive activity: The biggest buy-side driver of M&A is expected to be the availability of undervalued deal targets. On the sell-side, distressed situations are expected to be the biggest driver, cited by 26% of respondents.
• Valuation gaps: seller/buyer valuation gaps are seen as the biggest obstacles to M&A.
• Cost of financing to increase: As many as 87% of all respondents expect financing to be tighter compared with 2021 – this includes 45% who expect it to be much more difficult.
• ESG rises up the M&A agenda: Some 90% of respondents expect ESG scrutiny in their dealmaking to increase over the next three years, compared to 72% in 2021’s survey.
• TMT reigns supreme: Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) is the sector predicted to see the greatest growth in dealmaking.

This year CMS have also added special editorial features including:

• An analysis of ESG in M&A transactions
• An examination of trends in M&A disputes
• A spotlight on M&A in the Nordics

Download the full report here.