Emerging Europe M&A Activity Reaches Five-Year High
The latest CMS Emerging Europe M&A 2024/25 report, published in collaboration with EMIS, highlights a significant rebound in deal activity, with transaction volume reaching its highest level since 2018. This growth is fueled by improving economic conditions, easing inflation, and cautious optimism for interest rate cuts.
Key Findings:
✅ Transaction Volume Up – 1,281 deals in 2024, an 8% increase from 2023.
✅ Shift to Smaller Deals – While deal numbers rose, total value dropped 30.9% to EUR 25.72bn, as fewer large-scale transactions were completed.
✅ Cross-Border M&A Remains Strong – 776 cross-border deals (+31 YoY), with the US and UK leading in deal volume, while Luxembourg topped by value (EUR 2.01bn).
✅ Sectoral Shifts – Energy & Utilities saw a 162% jump in deal value (EUR 9.75bn), and Real Estate & Construction grew by 77.2% (EUR 5.65bn).
✅ Private Equity Momentum – Deal volume increased 12.6% (278 deals), but total value dropped 11.4% (EUR 13.88bn).
Market Performance by Country
- Poland & Romania remain key M&A hubs but saw slight declines in transaction volume.
- Bulgaria, Croatia & Hungary reported notable growth in deal activity.
- Czech Republic & Slovakia experienced a drop in deal numbers but saw significant growth in deal values (53.8% and 25.5% respectively).
Outlook for 2025
M&A activity in Emerging Europe remains strong, driven by economic growth, regulatory changes, and digital transformation. Optimism is high for continued dealmaking, especially in key sectors such as finance, insurance, and energy.
Horea Popescu, CMS Partner, concludes: “Despite short-term challenges, Emerging Europe remains an attractive market for investors. With rising deal volumes and growing optimism, 2025 is set to be a year of new opportunities.”
The CMS Emerging Europe M&A 2024/25 report can be found here.
About CMS
Founded in 1999, CMS is an international organisation of independent law firms that offers full-service legal and tax advice. With 85 offices in over 48 countries across the world and more than 6,300 lawyers, CMS has longstanding expertise both in advising in its local jurisdictions and across borders. From major multinationals and mid-caps to enterprising start-ups, CMS provides the technical rigour, strategic excellence and long-term partnership to keep each client ahead in its chosen markets.
The CMS member firms provide a wide range of expertise across 19 practice areas and sectors, including Corporate/M&A, Energy & Climate Change, Funds, Life Sciences & Healthcare, TMC, Tax, Banking & Finance, Commercial, Antitrust, Competition & Trade, Dispute Resolution, Employment & Pensions, Intellectual Property and Real Estate.
For more information, please visit cms.law
About EMIS
EMIS is a leading curator of multi-sector, multi-country research for the world’s fastest-growing markets. We provide a unique combination of research from globally renowned information providers, local and niche specialist sources, our own proprietary analysis, and powerful monitoring and productivity tools. EMIS delivers trustworthy intelligence covering more than 370 industry sectors and 12 million companies across 197 markets – providing everything you need in one place as actionable insights are facilitated by leading technology. EMIS is part of ISI Markets.
www.emis.com