September 2 2026 |
EMEA dealmaking has stopped moving in one direction. In the first half of 2026 the market produced 9,445 announced deals worth €783bn. Volume fell 10% year on year. Value rose 51.8%. That is the strongest half for aggregate value on record, and it happened while fewer deals got done.
The two lines have separated. Volume is going down. Value is going up. That is the scissors.
Every figure below comes from Deal Drivers: EMEA HY 2026, published by Mergermarket, an ION Analytics company, in partnership with Datasite, covering announced deals from 1 January to 30 June 2026.
How did EMEA M&A perform in the first half of 2026?
EMEA recorded 9,445 announced deals worth €783bn in H1 2026. Volume declined 10% against H1 2025. Value climbed 51.8%. It was the strongest half for aggregate deal value on record. Private equity followed the same shape: 1,564 buyouts worth €165bn, volume down 10.1%, value up 25.4%.
Why did EMEA deal value rise while deal volume fell?
Because capital concentrated instead of leaving. Fewer transactions absorbed far more money. Deals above €5bn accounted for €97.4bn of disclosed value in six months, from just eight transactions. That single band beat the full-year totals for both 2025 (€88.7bn) and 2024 (€64.9bn). At the other end, the €5m to €250m band delivered €33.6bn across 654 deals.
The macro backdrop explains the caution underneath. In June the ECB raised the deposit rate to 2.25%, its first increase since 2023, after energy inflation pushed eurozone HICP to 3.2% in May. Nomura expects a terminal rate of 3% by March 2027. The central bank cut its 2026 eurozone growth forecast to 0.8%. Money is more expensive and growth is thinner, so buyers are spending it on fewer things.
