Finnish M&A market update Q1 2024

After the first quarter of 2024, it is time to summarise the events in the Finnish M&A market and anticipate the outlook for the rest of the year. We have gathered data on M&A activity in Finland and interviewed leading M&A experts from PwC Finland to highlight recent key themes.

Despite the challenges that continued during Q1, there are signals indicating increasing activity levels for the upcoming year. The ECB cautiously indicated that they consider cutting the interest rate in June, which will boost the economy and the M&A market as well. Private equity companies have several mature companies in their portfolios which are to be sold as the economic outlook gets better.

Key observations from our report are

• Smaller deals continued to drive the Finnish M&A market, but the number of deals decreased compared to Q1 2023. However, the deal count slightly increased compared to previous quarter. There are also bigger deals in preparation, which will be completed once the economic environment stabilises.
• The quietness in the IPO market continued in Finland throughout the first quarter, but IPOs are executing in neighbour countries and elsewhere in the world. We expect the IPO activity to slowly pick up in Finland during the second half of the year, and in 2025 we believe to see several IPOs.
• Strategic reviews and public tender offers continued during the first quarter. Continued low valuation levels indicate that we might see more PTOs with higher premiums during the year.
• We are currently in a downturn, but the conditions for a turnaround are in sight as interest rates and inflation have started to stabilise or even decrease. Finland usually lags slightly behind the cycle, so the positive effects of the economic turnaround will be visible to us a little later.

Read the full report