Joao Grando is Mergermarket’s Private Equity Editor, EMEA. He has been a journalist covering industrials and private equity-related M&A across Europe with Mergermarket since 2015.
28 buyouts in the Technology and Business Services sectors were reported during March.
The quarter ending 31 March has seen 254 sponsor buyouts in Europe, the lowest volume figure since 2015. Of the 53 deals in March - a month otherwise characterised by news of sale processes being postponed or pulled – 28 came from Technology and Business Services, Mergermarket data shows.
Resilience in Technology and Business Service sectors
With 14 sponsor buyouts in March, the Technology sector is the one showing more resilience in these first weeks of the pandemic.
The green shoots below offer a sneak peek on the types of tech businesses investors seem to be more comfortable with at the moment:
Another 14 sponsor buyouts were in the Business Services segment. A sign that investors could be more confident in deploying money on asset-light companies and business models that help people to adopt (willingly or unwillingly) the new lifestyle brought by the pandemic.
A new world for the investors
The areas of investment will change even faster as one sponsor adviser pointed out: “Investors will take a different approach going forward and the favourite targets of yesterday are not likely to be the same of tomorrow.” Investors will also put the company’s business model under scrutiny. Outsourcing could weight more as a risk factor while social distancing measures may last longer than initially expected.
Joao Grando is Mergermarket’s Private Equity Editor, EMEA. He has been a journalist covering industrials and private equity-related M&A across Europe with Mergermarket since 2015.
Joao Grando is Mergermarket’s Private Equity Editor, EMEA. He has been a journalist covering industrials and private equity-related M&A across Europe with Mergermarket since 2015.
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