While this year had fewer private equity deals in Europe than either 2022 or 2021, the total is still higher than in all years prior to that.
As of Dec. 13, €613.8 billion (about $672.8 billion) has been transacted across more than 5,724 deals, according to PitchBook data. Zooming in on 2023 buyouts, there had been 4,663 in the region worth a combined total of €555.2 billion. This came in at a 17.3% decline compared to last year’s full-year deal value total of €671.3 billion.
Despite the dip in deal total, several major buyouts were announced in 2023, including Permira and Blackstone’s bid to buy Oslo-listed Adevinta. The two firms are leading a PE consortium of buyers for the online classified listings business at 140 billion Norwegian kroner (about $13.46 billion), per PitchBook data.
The deal was not only Europe’s largest buyout announced this year, it was also the second largest globally—topped only by Japan Industrial Partners’ take-private of Toshiba.
GTCR‘s planned purchase of a 55% stake in global merchant payments company Worldpay from Fidelity National Information Services follows closely behind as Europe’s second-largest buyout of this year at $12.7 billion.
Europe’s 10 largest buyouts collectively totaled about €57.5 billion, with Germany and the UK each home to two deals. These large buyouts took place across a range of sectors; however, IT companies accounted for four out of the 10, alongside two business products and services specialists.
Three are take-privates, as 2023 reached a decade high for such deals in Europe. However, they were typically smaller transactions. In 2022, for instance, there were 39 take-privates worth €50.5 billion total, compared with this year’s high of 48 deals at just €31.9 billion.
Featured image by DBenitostock/Getty Images
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