Ireland bucks global trend of mergers and acquisitions

According to analysis by law firm Philip Lee there were 794 mergers and acquisition transactions in Ireland last year,

Ireland saw one of its busiest years for mergers and acquisitions in 2023 with a total of 794 transactions being recorded, bucking the trend seen across many other countries, a new analysis shows.

The analysis, published by law firm Philip Lee, shows that despite a slower start to 2023, the market quickly bounced back and gathered momentum through much of last year.

The first three months of 2023 saw 154 transactions before increasing to 794 by the year’s end, according to data reported to business services company Experian.

However, while the volume of deals is up, the value has declined by 27% year-on-year from €72bn to €59bn with the analysis citing rising interest rates, geopolitical instability and concerns about an imminent recession dampening sentiment.

Among the largest deals last year is the €12bn acquisition of US insurer NFP by Aon which has corporate offices located in Dublin. In addition, packaging company Smurfit Kappa agreed terms on a merger with Westrock at a valuation of €11bn.

A €6.3bn investment raised payments platform Stripe to the top of the list for most valuable “inward” investments during 2023. This was followed by the €3.4bn acquisition of Pembroke Aircraft Leasing by the Saudi Arabian firm Avilease.

The information and communication sector was the most common target for inward investment in 2023 with a total of 39 transactions recorded.

Volume declined marginally in the professional, scientific and technical division, while the areas of manufacturing and financial services attracted strong levels of investment and were close to record levels of inward deal activity.

There were 31 transactions in both the manufacturing sector and financial services sector.

In its outlook for 2024, the analysis expects technology to continue to lead deal volumes and Ireland will continue to attract strong overseas investment, especially in areas such as energy transition, fintech, and AI.

Partner at Philip Lee, Eoghan Doyle, who co-authored the report, said despite “global market trends” mergers and acquisition activity in Ireland last year showed “resilience” in attracting capital.

“If the inflationary and interest rate challenges of recent years can be brought under control, we would hope to see an improvement in the global mergers and acquisition trend and, in turn, the higher values that dropped for deal making should hopefully start to pick up."