{"id":33975,"date":"2026-02-11T22:23:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T03:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/11\/ma-activity-up-in-2025-but-values-fell-william-fry\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T22:23:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T03:23:37","slug":"ma-activity-up-in-2025-but-values-fell-william-fry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/11\/ma-activity-up-in-2025-but-values-fell-william-fry\/","title":{"rendered":"M&#038;A activity up in 2025 but values fell &#8211; William Fry"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"medium-10 medium-offset-1 columns article-body\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-epic-field=\"content\">\n<p>The value of mergers and acquisitions deals involving Irish companies fell sharply last year, according to William Fry.<\/p>\n<p>That is despite a rise in the number of deals compared to 2024.<\/p>\n<p>William Fry&#8217;s annual review of M&#038;A activity in Ireland identified 524 deals in 2025 &#8211; up 3% year-on-year.<\/p>\n<p>However their combined value was down 35% compared to 2024, at \u20ac19.5 billion.<\/p>\n<p>It said that was largely due to the lack of any mega-deals last year &#8211; with the 2024 data skewed somewhat by Apollo Global Management&#8217;s acquisition of a 49% stake in Intel&#8217;s Irish Fab 34 for \u20ac10.1 billion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But when you compare the data over the last 10 years, the Irish deal value numbers for 2025 were an increase on seven of those last 10 years,&#8221; said Andrew McIntyre, head of corporate and M&#038;A at William Fry.<\/p>\n<p>The report shows that the energy, mining and utilities sector was the largest contributor to the 2025 in terms of value, representing \u20ac4.8 billion of deal-making.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The biggest transaction of the year was the acquisition by French investor Ardian of the Irish utilities group Energia for a reported \u20ac2.5 billion, so that really boosted the sector,&#8221; said Mr McIntyre.<\/p>\n<p>He said that there was also a lot of activity in the pharmaceutical sector, with Alkermes&#8217; \u20ac2.2 billion acquisition of Avadel Pharmaceuticals leading the deal-making there. <\/p>\n<p alt=\"7.50am Business News\" class=\"tpe\" data-description=\"Presented by Adam Maguire.\" data-embed=\"rte-player\" data-id=\"22583317\" data-ot-category=\"C0004\" data-title=\"Presented by Adam Maguire.\"><span class=\"blocked-container\"><span class=\"blocked-heading\">We need your consent to load this rte-player content<\/span><span class=\"blocked-notice\">We use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.<\/span>Manage Preferences<\/span><iframe allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"optanon-category-C0004\" data-ot-category=\"C0004\" data-src=\"\/\/www.rte.ie\/bosco\/components\/player\/iframe.html?clipid=22583317&#038;autostart=false&#038;app=true\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"345\" width=\"614\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Uncertainty in the US and global economy did have some impact on M&#038;A activity here during 2025, but there was a strong rebound towards the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Mr McIntyre said US investors were still very active in the Irish market &#8211; with US and UK investors making up two-thirds of deals last year.<\/p>\n<p>However he said there was an expectation that attempts to strengthen the euro zone economy &#8211; and a desire for businesses here to shift focus away from the US economy &#8211; would lead to more European-based deals this year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that that is already happening in terms of activity within Europe,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We saw in Ireland, 13 transactions were undertaken by French businesses &#8211; there were also Swiss acquisitions&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So there&#8217;s a lot more deals still happening within Europe itself and I think investors and buyers are conscious of that and want to make sure that they find value within Europe as well,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said it was expected to be another busy year for M&#038;A activity in the energy sector, with hopes of a pick-up in activity in life sciences and technology as well.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The value of mergers and acquisitions deals involving Irish companies fell sharply last year, according to William Fry. That is despite a rise in the number of deals compared to 2024. William Fry&#8217;s annual review of M&#038;A activity in Ireland identified 524 deals in 2025 &#8211; up 3% year-on-year. However their combined value was down [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}