Mergermarket unveils the Global Mergers and Acquisitions Trends and Potential Risks Report on its website.
The third edition of the Global M&A Trends and Risks report by Norton Rose Fulbright offers valuable insights into the key trends and risks shaping the global M&A landscape in 2025. The report, released in collaboration with Mergermarket, examines trends across industries and geographies to help businesses navigate the complex dealmaking environment.
A Strategic Tool Amid Change
M&A remains a crucial strategic tool for global businesses, offering opportunities to reshape organisations and enter new markets amid unprecedented change. The report underscores the importance of understanding driving factors, risks, and opportunities across various industries and regions for successful dealmaking.
Rising Popularity of Deal Insurance
One of the notable trends highlighted in the report is the increasing popularity of representations and warranties insurance (RWI). Nearly 65 percent of respondents expect the use of RWI to increase in 2025 compared to 2024, as parties seek to mitigate risks associated with transactions.
Optimism and Regional Growth
Optimism is improving dealmaker confidence, partly due to potential resolutions in US tariff policies. This optimism is expected to lead to robust M&A volumes in the first half of 2025, particularly in the US and EMEA regions. Despite geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties, M&A activity is expected to accelerate in the second half of 2025.
Enhanced Negotiation Sophistication
The market shows an emphasis on targeted, thoughtful negotiations focused on provisions that affect day-to-day performance. Growing sophistication in negotiation techniques is evident, with dealmakers adopting more data-driven approaches and balancing structural protections with economic flexibility.
Private Equity Activity
Private equity deal activity shows signs of increasing strength, for example, in the US market. Forty-four percent of survey participants expect domestic private equity buyers to be among the most active types of acquirers in deal markets in 2025. Fifty-one percent have already acquired an AI business, with respondents applying the technology to various parts of their M&A processes.
Regional Focus
Respondents expect that domestic strategic buyers will come to the fore as the most active acquirers in 2025, particularly in emerging markets like Latin America, Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. However, more than two-thirds of respondents said the escalation in trade tensions had caused their appetite for M&A to decrease.
Financing Challenges
At the global level, 35 percent of respondents expect it to become more difficult to secure M&A-related financing in 2025 compared with 2024. The global corporate, M&A, and securities team of Norton Rose Fulbright provides legal advice on various matters, including public transactions, strategic review processes, joint ventures, acquisitions, and more.
The report was based on a survey of 200 top-level executives, including 100 executives from multinational corporations, 50 from large private equity firms, and 50 from major investment banks. Louise Nelson, the Head of PR for Europe, Middle East, and Asia for Norton Rose Fulbright, can be reached at Tel: 44 20 7444 5086 or Cell: 44 79 0968 4893 for further information. Dan McKenna, the US Director and Global Head of PR and Communications, can be reached at Tel: 1 713 651 3576.
In summary, the 2025 global M&A environment is characterised by resilience amid uncertainty, increasing use of strategic risk mitigation tools like deal insurance, enhanced negotiation sophistication, and regional growth optimism, all framed within a complex geopolitical and economic backdrop.
- As businesses navigate the complex dealmaking environment in 2025, understanding the increasing popularity of representations and warranties insurance (RWI) can be a strategic tool to help mitigate risks associated with transactions, as highlighted in the Global M&A Trends and Risks report.
- In the face of potential financing challenges in 2025, businesses seeking M&A-related financing may benefit from partnering with a global corporate, M&A, and securities team like Norton Rose Fulbright, who offer legal advice on various matters, including public transactions, strategic review processes, joint ventures, acquisitions, and more.
