Nordic Deal Trend Report Q1 2023

Apparently, mega deals happen less frequently than what we have seen over the last couple of years. Mind you though, that operating in the Nordic M&A market, this does not have a too large impact as the main part of deals fall in the mid-market segment anyway. With smaller-size deals, that are easier to get financing in place for, we expect the deal levels, looking at number of announced deals, will continue as is or perhaps, even increase slightly going into the next couple of quarters of the year.

From a sector-split perspective, everything is business as usual. Tech deals, although slightly down compared to the COVID-19 heydays, still make up almost a quarter (23%) of all announced deals. This is followed by manufacturing (18%) and services (13%) – exactly the same split as end of last year. Followed by real estate (11%) and energy and consumer markets (both at 9%), the six largest sectors total close to 85% of all deals.

Even though we seem to have been hit by one financially challenging curveball after another since the start of 2020 – most recently with the global banking system turmoil in both the US and Europe and its follow-on effect on parts of the stock market  – the deals pipeline regarding Danish and Nordic assets coming to market and being carried out is still relatively strong. The prevalence of smaller to midsize deals still taking place – in essence, the type of deals being done across our part of the world – paired with the relative strength and stability of Nordic economies make me believe that the bottom will not fall out of the Nordic M&A market. For one, I will look forward to experiencing how the development of the Nordic M&A market will fare going into Q2 and Q3 of 2023.