Andrew McIntyre

The firm today published its M&A review for 2025, which saw a total of 524 deals worth €19.5 billion — a three per cent year-on-year increase in deal volume.

The 35 per cent decrease in total transaction value reflected the absence of ‘megadeals’ seen in prior years, such as the 2024 acquisition by Apollo Global Management acquisition of a 49 per cent stake in Intel Corp’s Fab 34 facility for €10.1 billion.

Activity remained firmly mid-market focused, with 90 per cent of disclosed deals valued between €5 million and €250 million.

Inbound investment remained strong, with 59% of all Irish deals involving overseas bidders, led by US and UK acquirers.

Private equity accounted for 19 per cent of all M&A activity during the year.

Andrew McIntyre, head of corporate/M&A at William Fry, said: “Irish M&A showed clear resilience throughout 2025 despite a challenging global backdrop.

“Over the longer term, both deal value and volume exceeded seven of the past ten years, underlining Ireland’s attractiveness as a jurisdiction of choice for M&A activity.

“Even as global M&A activity fell to its lowest level in two decades amid trade tensions and geopolitical conflict, inbound investment into Ireland remained robust.”

Commenting on the outlook for M&A, he noted: “Despite ongoing uncertainty, the foundations for Irish M&A in 2026 are positive. Lower interest rates, strong relative economic growth and sectoral strengths in Energy, Pharma & Biotech and advanced technologies such as AI all support dealmaking.

“While geopolitical risk and uncertainty around US trade policy remain key concerns, Irish assets continue to attract strategic and private equity interest. If global volatility begins to ease, we could see the Irish M&A pipeline open.”