European M&A Report

This report was reuploaded on February 6, 2021, due to errors in charts on pages 3 and 8.

Strong close to 2020 sets the stage for a banner year in European M&A
 

Thanks to a surge in the last six months of the year, investors put more than €1 trillion to work in Europe's M&A market during 2020 for the fifth year running. As the COVID-19 pandemic roiled global capital markets, deal flow dipped during H1. But before long, significant appetite for deals in the IT and healthcare sectors spurred a rebound.

PitchBook's 2020 Annual European M&A Report, sponsored by Liberty GTS, explores the trends and forces that shaped this recovery—and also lays out the reasons why dealmaking could soar to new heights in 2021. Other key takeaways include:

• Take-private activity is poised for a big year in 2021 after deal counts declined in 2018, 2019 and 2020

• The SPAC craze could jump the Atlantic Ocean this year to meet new demand from European stock exchanges

• Mass vaccine campaigns are contributing to a bullish outlook for European private equity in 2021
   

This report was sponsored by Liberty GTS. Interested in sponsoring this report? Visit our media partnerships page to learn more.