M&A Market: Record Number of Transactions Last Year

The global market for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) set a new record for the number of deals in 2022, but the total value of deals was 30% lower than in 2021, according to a new study by the accounting firm Deloitte.

The number of transactions hit a decade high, with 44,765 deals last year, up 26.7% on the previous year. However, despite the exceptionally high number of transactions, the total value of transactions in 2022, at USD 4.1 billion, was nearly 30.8% below the record year of 2021.

In line with the trends in the global and Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, M&A deal activity in Hungary continued to increase in 2022, with the number of transactions rising by 25.5% to 69, and the share of domestic investors at around 52%. Non-CEE EU-28 countries (including the UK) were the most active investors, ahead of the CEE region.

In Hungary, the 2022 industry ranking has been significantly redrawn compared to the previous year. Similar to the regional ranking, the IT sector came out on top, ahead of the financial and energy sectors. The financial sector was still in the middle of the pack in 2021, but by 2022 it had moved up to second place.

In the CEE M&A market (ranked by number of transactions), the financial sector is moderately dominant, but it is one of the leading sectors in Hungary. A large increase could be observed in the industrial and consumer sectors in 2022, Deloitte said.