The Ireland M&A Review 2024, published by William Fry and Mergermarket, provides a comprehensive overview of developments in the Irish M&A market during 2024 and offers an outlook for the year ahead.

Highlights include:

• Deal trends. The Irish M&A market saw 499 reported deals over the course of 2024, a 1% increase compared to 2023. However, these transactions were collectively worth €27.5bn, a 115% increase compared to the previous 12 months, although this figure was inflated by a handful of unusually large deals.
• Sector watch. In value and volume terms, the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sector continues to lead performance in Ireland’s M&A market. Three of the five largest M&A transactions in Ireland during 2024 were in the TMT sector.
• Inbound activity. International buyers continue to look to Ireland for M&A opportunities. There were 275 inbound transactions worth a total of €23.6bn during 2024. In volume terms, that figure represented a 2% decrease on deals in 2023 but by value, inbound M&A was up 111%.
• Private equity. Ireland saw 84 transactions involving private equity firms during 2024, the same number as in the previous year. In value terms, however, private equity investment in Irish companies surged 523% to €16.4bn – though more than €10bn of that total figure came from a single transaction, Apollo’s deal with Intel in relation to the Fab 34 high-volume manufacturing facility.

The report is also available at williamfry.com