The appeal of Irish businesses to private investors, both nationally and internationally, shows no sign of waning in Ireland’s mergers and acquisitions market, which is in the midst of an upswing, Sorcha Corcoran writes

There has been a strong level of private equity activity in the Irish mergers and acquisitions (M&A) landscape in 2024 and this looks likely to continue into next year in light of the ‘dry powder’ available that is yet to be deployed by investors.

This is the consensus among the firms that took part in this year’s Business Plus M&A survey, all of which expect Irish businesses to remain highly attractive to international investors, particularly from the US and UK.

“In the first half of 2024, almost one in five deals was undertaken by a financial sponsor or a private equity backed company and — notably — half of Ireland’s largest 20 deals involved a private equity acquirer,” David Fitzgibbon, partner and head of corporate M&A at Matheson, says.

“One of our stand-out transactions in the past 12 months was advising Winthrop Technologies, Europe’s leading dedicated turnkey datacentre delivery provider, on the strategic partnership in entered into with funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and affiliated funds.

“We expect the trend of private equity acquirers being party to larger transactions to continue through 2025, with the engineering, financial services and technology areas set to see a lot of interest.”

According to Eoghan Doyle, partner at Philip Lee, the Irish market has “exploded” with private equity interest in recent years and 2024 thus far has been no different.

He estimates that there has been roughly a 145% increase in the number of private equity deals this year.

“The UK and the US are consistently the most active investors/buyers of Irish businesses generally, and that follows through in the activity within the private equity market.

“Ireland has benefited from ‘the Brexit effect’ [and to a degree perhaps, other global instability factors] in terms of deal activity,” he says.

“Investors looking to trade in the EU see Ireland with its stable political and economic climate, favourable tax regime and strong workforce as a fantastic investment opportunity to achieve that.

“There is a wall of capital looking to deploy in Ireland and a raft of strong-performing companies in sectors that will be targeted for private equity investment and M&A opportunities in 2025.”

John Bowe, partner, corporate finance at Forvis Mazars, says private equity has been the biggest investor and buyer of Irish businesses over the past five years and expects this to remain the case.

“Ireland has a vibrant domestic private equity market, supported by debt from both incumbent banks and debt funds, which means there is significant capital to deploy in supporting high-quality Irish businesses.

“Additionally, international investors, particularly private equity firms from the US and UK, have had great experiences supporting Irish businesses and find the Irish market very attractive.

“Moreover, successful exits for both Irish and international private equity firms have led to increased activity as Irish companies demonstrate the potential to scale profitably into international markets.”

This year, Forvis Mazars was engaged to advise on the sale of Standard Control Systems, a provider of building energy management systems based in Dublin, with a mandate to approach both trade buyers and private equity firms.

“The management team wanted to bring in a partner with experience of scaling a business with similar characteristics and market dynamics.

“The business attracted significant interest from both domestic and international funds, as well as trade buyers,” Bowe explains.

“Ultimately, a private equity structure aligned with the company’s goals, meeting all the key requirements.

“We provided strategic advice throughout the process across a wide range of work streams, managing the deal to a successful completion.

“This significant transaction marks a key milestone in the ongoing expansion of the business and contributes to the growing ecosystem of engineering services supporting data centres and the wider built environment.”

Baker Tilly managed a significant transaction involving a private equity investment in a well-established electrical firm based in the Leinster region over the past 12 months.

With operations across several key locations, the family-owned business has partnered with a prominent private equity firm to support its ambitious growth objectives.

“This deal highlights the appeal of Irish mid-market companies in attracting significant investment and underscores the role of private equity in helping family businesses to scale effectively,” Gerard Hughes, advisory partner at Baker Tilly, says.

He foresees a “measured, but positive” upswing in M&A activity in Ireland in 2025, with a stabilising interest rate environment combined with the availability of investment capital earmarked for Irish companies supporting deal momentum.

In his view, pent-up investor demand and the continued robust performance of the Irish economy have been key drivers of the promising upswing in deal volume in 2024.

“The maturing Irish private equity market, combined with continued interest rate cuts from the European Central Bank, is supporting increased financing access and deal activity.

“This dynamic has led to heightened interest in sectors such as financial services, business services and precision engineering, where Irish firms offer strong recurring revenues, robust margins and attractive customer bases,” he says.

“Deal size and valuations are showing more balance, with steady interest in mid-market deals alongside a few high-profile, larger transactions.

“Noteworthy sectors include technology, media and telecommunications, healthcare and renewable energy.

“This growth reflects the demand for tech-driven and scalable business solutions and the trend of investors increasingly targeting sectors tied to the energy transition and sustainable business models.”

Philip Lee’s Eoghan Doyle has seen this trend first-hand over the past ten years as advisor to utility-scale solar and battery energy storage system developer Power Capital — Renewable Energy, which now has an Irish project portfolio pipeline of around 4GW.

Over the past year, he has also advised international, Danish headquartered energy company European Energy and a new entrant to the Irish energy market (based in Cork) on a series of renewable energy deals in Ireland.

“One solar deal in particular involved a competitive process, where our client and Philip Lee were successful in not only winning exclusivity in the market, but then completing the deal in a tight timeframe.

“Earlier this year, I advised Irish-based energy consultancy firm CapSpire on a private equity transaction with US-based Falfurrias Capital Partners,” he says.

Ronan Murray, corporate finance partner at EY Ireland, has observed an increase in ‘in-market’ Irish deals in 2024 and expects Irish businesses to remain very attractive to international investors for the foreseeable future, backed by Ireland’s diverse and skilled workforce.

“Although it may take some time to see the UK private equity response to the UK budget, which saw increases in capital gains tax and carried interest capital gains tax, the 2025 outlook for M&A activity in Ireland is very strong and exciting,” he says.

The EY corporate finance team in Ireland is already working with several clients before they go to market in the new year, with many of these having received direct approaches from interested parties, he adds.

“We are also working with clients that are looking to acquire domestically and/or in Europe or the US.

“I expect to see continued activity in sectors such as technology, media and telecoms, advanced manufacturing and healthcare.

“There is optimism and confidence in the Irish M&A market as we look to 2025.”

EY Ireland has been involved in a number of significant deals in the past 12 months.

One of the most recent was as lead M&A advisor to the shareholders of Dublin-headquartered PlanNet21 on its sale to Danish IT solutions provider Conscia A/S, backed by Nordic Capital.

“We provided integrated and exclusive sell-side M&A lead advisory, financial and tax-vendor due diligence, financial modelling and tax-structuring services to the selling shareholders — a perfect example of EY’s ‘one-stop shop’ solution,” says Murray.

“This deal demonstrates the international interest in Ireland’s indigenous businesses.

“As a former EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and existing EY private client, we were especially proud to have worked with PlanNet21 on this landmark deal.”

RSM Ireland has experienced very strong deal flow throughout 2024, reflected in each of its service lines of M&A advisory, due diligence, valuations and funding, according to Frank Dunne, consulting partner corporate finance.

“Notable publicly-announced assignments include advising the vendors of Neylons Facility Management and Allmed Logistics, both of which were acquired by private equity-backed trade entities.

From a due diligence perspective, we have advised on several complex, crossborder buy-and-sell assignments, including the acquisition of the precision engineering company ATA Group by US-based Harvey Performance Company,” he says.

“Private equity continues to play a pivotal role in the Irish deal landscape, particularly in the middle market where scalable models and strong management teams are highly valued.

“Record levels of ‘dry powder’ and growing private equity competition are driving increasingly sophisticated deal structures, with many funds seeking minority stakes or long-term partnerships to secure access to highpotential businesses.

“For owner-managed businesses, this presents significant optionality as they seek to secure capital, strategic expertise and global networks — all to drive accelerated growth.

“These trends underscore the importance of having globally-integrated advisers.”

The proposed transatlantic merger between RSM US and RSM UK will establish a partner-owned multinational organisation spanning the US, the UK, Canada and Ireland, supported by 23,000 professionals and with combined annual revenues of $5bn.

“For RSM Ireland, this milestone marks an opportunity to significantly enhance our ability to deliver seamless cross-border services to clients navigating increasingly global opportunities,” notes Dunne.

The outlook for the Irish M&A market in 2025 is positive, with particularly strong buyer interest anticipated across middle-market, privately-owned businesses — a segment that strongly embodies Ireland’s diverse and resilient economic strengths, he continues.

“We expect activity across multiple sectors, including technology, healthcare and financial services, alongside growing interest in industrial and consumer goods.

“Private equity is set to remain a driving force, leveraging capital reserves to target businesses with robust growth potential and innovative business models.

“As global investor sentiment continues to improve and clarity around the US presidential election takes hold, Ireland is well positioned to capitalise on this momentum.”

Philip Lea, partner, corporate and M&A group at Dillon Eustace, describes the M&A market as having been resilient across 2023 and 2024.

It has been a busy second half of the year for the legal practice, which expects a strong pipeline for Q1, 2025.

“As a general rule, we find that transactions that are the most successful are those where there are clear heads of terms agreed at the outset, both sides of the transaction are clear on their strategic goals and recognise what the other counterparty wants to achieve from the transaction, and parties set a reasonably tight but realistic timetable,” Lea says.

“Our clients have told us operating their business has become ever-more complex and this extends to their M&A strategy.

“While the potential areas for due diligence are ever-expanding, the due diligence process needs to be carefully managed to ensure that we, together with our clients, are focusing on matters of strategic value and potential liability issues.

“ This invariably involves coordinating with a number of advisers as risks can be a complex mix of legal, financial and commercial/ operational considerations.”

Lea points out that the introduction in Q1, 2025 of the Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (the FDI Act) is expected to give rise to a significant number of M&A deals falling within its remit.

“The FDI Act will bring in a regulatory angle to many deals that previously would not have been subject to regulatory analysis.

“Its introduction is a significant change to inward investment in Ireland,” he says.

“Given that it is an entirely new regime, dealmakers will need to build in additional time in the event they are compelled to make a notification.

“However, we would be hopeful that, after a bedding-in period and with the right advice, these changes will not cause material disruption to the M&A process.”

Photo: John Bowe, partner, corporate finance, Forvis Mazars