37% of companies plan to carry out purchases and mergers this year. The market faces a reactivation of operations after the brake caused by the pandemic last year.
The 37% of companies Spanish planned mergers and acquisitions this year, which represents a “major revitalization” of these operations compared to 2020, when the market was marked by the impact of the pandemic. This is clear from a survey carried out by the KMPG consultancy in collaboration with the CEOE employer of more than 1,400 companies between the past months of November and January.
Last year, only 13% of these companies made a purchase and only 7% completed an integration. In contrast, 24% of the firms surveyed plan to make an acquisition that year and 13% estimate that they will embark on a merger . The percentage of companies that consider making alliances to develop business with other companies has also increased from 20% to 35% .
The main motivations put forward are the possibility of increasing the customer base and taking advantage of the good opportunities offered by the market (40% of the companies indicate this in both cases). In addition, 35% argue that it is a way to consolidate their market share . Regarding the main difficulties in carrying out operations, 73% have cited economic uncertainty , well ahead of those that have referred to doubts about the evolution of the health crisis (47%).
“In the months of confinement, investment activity was almost completely paralyzed . Then, with the first de-escalation, investment activity again gained prominence, especially in the world of the ‘mid-market’ (medium-sized companies), and, after the In the summer, it increased significantly due to the heat of private equity funds and the facilities to obtain debt.
All this has fostered a climate of confidence in mergers and acquisitions operations in 2021. Digital transformation , the relevance of technology and the agenda IS G (environmental, social and governance, for its acronym in English) appear as deep energizers of the industry in the coming months, “said Jorge Riopérez, partner of KPMG.
