According to leading German experts, the boom in the market for mergers and acquisitions will continue in the coming year.

After 2021 has been a global record year for weeks, volumes are likely to reach similar levels.

Klaus Max Smolka

Editor in business.

  • Follow I follow

“The market is running at full speed. After everything we can see, there is no sign of that subsiding in 2022, ”says Martin Ulbrich, partner at the law firm Hengeler Mueller. "I see no reason why we will not move at the extremely high level of the previous year in 2022," says Berthold Fürst, co-head of global business with Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) at Deutsche Bank. Quite similar to Patrik Czornik, who leads the M&A business in Germany and Austria for JP Morgan: "At the moment we are very optimistic that the M&A level will remain at a very high level."

So far 2007 has held the record in the global M&A business.

The data service provider Dealogic, which specializes in capital market transactions, puts the combined volume of all mergers at that time at $ 4.6 trillion.

The current year has already reached this nominal value in October.

By early December, the deals totaled $ 5.3 trillion.

Other strong years were 2015 (4.5 trillion dollars), 2018 (4.1 trillion) and 2019 (4.0 trillion).

Takeover of Deutsche Wohnen, previous record

Regionally, almost half of the volume comes from the United States.

“The USA is still the driving force,” says Jens Maurer, Co-Head of Investment Banking Germany / Austria at Morgan Stanley.

The US generated probably as much volume this year as the total global volume last year.

Johannes Laumann, board member of the Mutares holding company, registered a certain reluctance in Asia. Management there are cautious because of the restrictions imposed by Covid: "For Asians, the problem is that they would like to look at the product and production and would get to know people in order to get a feeling." This is why Asian bidders are currently canceling the bidding process at an early stage .

The record has not been reached in Germany, but: “We are also experiencing a strong M&A year in Germany.

The third quarter in particular stands out with a record volume of 92 billion euros, ”says Tibor Kossa, Co-Head of Goldman Sachs' M&A business in Germany.

The number of really big deals - valued at over $ 10 billion;

The US currency is the common size in M&A statistics - this year it is just as much in the usual range as that of the smaller deals under a billion dollars.

But the segment in between is noticeably brisk: Dealogic counts 46 such transactions, more than in any other year.

In normal times, it's a number in your twenties or thirties.

The largest takeover in this country was that of Deutsche Wohnen by Vonovia.

Digitization and sustainability

Financial investors again dare to bid for listed companies - here the duo of EQT and Hellman & Friedman stands out, which initially bid individually and in competition for Zooplus and finally submitted a joint offer for around 4 billion dollars.

Bankers view the prospects in German-speaking countries for the coming year as positive.

"We are very confident that we will see another year of high activity," says Sascha Pfeiffer, co-head of the European technology team at Houlihan Lokey, who has just taken over Pfeiffer's old employer GCA.