Top dealmakers from Citi and Deutsche Bank spoke to Mergermarket on thesidelines of the Nordic M&A and Private Equity Forum, a gathering of 350 of the most acquisitive businesses from across the region.

Video: Jan Olsson, CEO Nordic Region at Deutsche Bank

Despite the European continent reaching its highest post-crisis M&A values in 2018, prolonged uncertainty over the United Kingdom’s future relationship with the EU caused a considerable slowdown in European M&A activity in the second half of the year.

Investment bankers sat alongside a panel of economists and corporate acquirers to respond to keynote speaker Carl Bildt‘s views about how immune the Nordic region might be to ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.

Video: Lars Ingemarsson, Managing Director, co-Head of Nordic Investment Banking at Citi

At just over €85 billion, M&A value in the Nordic region hit their second highest levels since the financial crisis in 2018 – in large part driven by private equity investments that has influenced deal terms and how processes are run.

In volume terms, there was close to 1200 deals, with both Sweden and Finland delivering their highest deal count on Mergermarket record.

In particular the technology sector has been the subject of investors’ focus.For example, e-commerce and payment technologies in Sweden and several B2B software firms across a broad range of applications in Denmark have attracted investor attention.

In an uncharacteristically subdued start to the year, technology was one brightspot for M&A advisors in the Nordic region.

Download the presentations from the event here.