Based on the Mergermarket’s M&A Trend Report and Legal Advisor league tables for the third quarter of 2020, EY Law is one of the top M&A legal advisors in deal count in Finland.
“Despite the unstable economic situation due to Covid-19 pandemic, I’m delighted to see our rank going up from the last year. This shows that we are one of the major M&A advisory organizations in the Finnish legal services’ markets and, in addition to legal services, we offer our clients multidisciplinary transaction advisory capabilities, from financial, tax, commercial, law to operational experience,” comments Sakari Helminen, EY Finland Law Partner.
“Our aim going forward is to further enhance our position as the preferred choice for legal M&A partner and the trusted full-service transaction partner for our clients in Finland and abroad,” continues Helminen.
M&A market trends globally and in Europe
Based on the Mergermarket’s Global & Regional M&A Report 1Q-3Q20 it looks like the life is slowly returning towards ‘normal’. Dealmakers in Europe have started to see a recovery in the M&A market with a number of high-profile deals announced in 3Q20, following several subdued months of activity. Year started with a positive outlook in 1Q20, followed by a dramatic drop in both deals amounts and value for 2Q20 due to uncertainty in the market caused by Covid-19 pandemic. In 3Q20 we see however a substantial increase in M&A activities again both globally and in Europe.
- Globally there has been a major growth in deal values from 2Q20 to 3Q20 with overall 139.5% quarter-on-quarter increase in deal value to total of USD 891.4bn
- In Europe during 3Q20 we saw record amount of 1,244 deals worth a combined USD 164,6bn, up 54.8% by value over 2Q20 (USD 106.4.3bn)
- As a result, European M&A stands at USD 467.2bn in the first nine months of the year, down 20.7% compared to YTD 2019 (USD 589.6bn) and at its lowest YTD value since 2010 (USD 392.2bn)
- Especially Technology, Financial Services and Telecoms sectors have grown significantly compared to last year. Tech M&A is now the most active sector by value so far this year. In total USD 85.1bn has been spent in the European tech sector in 2020 across 769 deals, with 18.5% of all deals targeting tech, up from 14.2% in FY 2019
M&A market trends in Nordic and in Finland
The same trend as we see happening globally also affects M&A markets in Nordics and in Finland. Based on the current market activity we forecast M&A markets to stay active also during 4Q20 and Covid-19 pandemic’s impact to market activity seems to be less than earlier this year forecasted.
- Total deal counts in Nordics from 1Q19-3Q19 compared to 1Q20-3Q20 is 203 deals less than in previous year
- In Finland the trend is very similar, where total amount for deals during 1Q19-3Q19 was 171 and for the same period this year (1Q20-3Q20) is total of 123 deals
More information
Mergermarket’s Global & Regional M&A Report 1Q-3Q20
How the COVID-19 pandemic affects M&A transaction execution
Why EU state aid is an important element of transaction strategy
Transaction law