Key Contact: Eoghan Doyle – Partner  |  Andrew Tzialli – Partner

We are delighted to introduce the fourth edition of the Philip Lee M&A Insights guide. In this edition, we review deal activity across 2022, and consider the outlook for the year ahead.

This guide has been created in partnership with Experian, the global information services company using their comprehensive database of business and financial information which monitors and tracks the behaviour of businesses in the UK and Ireland. The insight is generated from processing over 60 million records a month, taken from over 600 of the latest and most up-to-date sources of UK and international business data. This data is trusted and used daily by over 35,000 organisations to inform their business decision making. The Experian database utilised for this guide holds more than 600,000 global M&A transactions, supported by data from more than 250 of the world’s foremost professional advisory firms.

M&A activity in Ireland in 2022 was once again very strong, building on record levels witnessed in 2021. The technology sector remained the frontrunner for deal activity. Bidder companies from the UK and the USA were most active in terms of deal making with Irish businesses. Outbound activity remained very strong and well above average over the previous ten years. The pivotal role of private equity in the Irish transactional market was once again evident in driving deal activity to record levels. Transactions in the energy sector (and in particular wind and solar) experienced record levels witnessed in a decade, reflective of the global push to the decarbonisation of society.

Despite the geopolitical and economic challenges impacting the UK during 2022, M&A activity remained relatively strong, partially underpinned by very strong PE activity which hit record levels since Experian began tracking such data. Deals in the technology sector continue to be prominent in both domestic and inward M&A and companies in the US and Sweden displayed the greatest interest in respect of inward M&A, with UK acquirers and investors being most active in the US and Irish markets.

Please click here to download the full guide.

Guide also featured on RTE News online, 15 March 2023.