Cross-border mid-market M&A compass report 2023
A research report for Moore Global Corporate Finance
By Kerstin Fehre
Professor of Strategy
Wanlin Hu
Doctoral Researcher, Entrepreneurship
In an ever-increasingly globalized world, firms of all sizes are searching for opportunities to expand their business activities outside their home country. Cross-border mergers & acquisitions (M&A) is an important and common strategy for expanding abroad. Among other things, cross-border M&A is seen as a means of facilitating entry into foreign markets, accessing new resources, capabilities and technologies, and diversifying.
On behalf of Moore Global Corporate Finance, Vlerick Business School has analysed more than 32,000 completed-confirmed deals in the year 2023 and compared that with data for the years 2019-2022.
Almost 20,000 cross-border mid-market mergers and acquisitions have been sealed in the past five years as ambitious firms look beyond their own borders for growth opportunities.
The results are revealed in the latest edition of The Moore Global Cross-border Mid-market M&A Compass, which analyses activity in this important part of the M&A market both in 2023 and stretching back to 2019.
The Compass report is launched today by Moore Global Corporate Finance in partnership with Vlerick Business School and tracked more than 40,000 transactions announced in 2023.
The main findings of the research were:
- Cross-border transactions systematically account for one-in-four of all M&A deals
- Average deal size in the cross-border mid-market has grown from €42.4 million in 2019 to €47.4 million in 2023 – a rise of 12%
- 62% of all cross-border M&A last year took place in the mid-market
- Four-out-of-ten cross-border deals in the mid-market involve acquirers from North America
- More than half of cross-border mid-market transactions were focused on the IT and healthcare sectors
Philippe Craninx, Chairman of Moore Global Corporate Finance, said:
“Cross-border M&A have always been more complex than domestic deals but this year’s Compass report confirms that they are strategically important for businesses that want to grow and build a sustainable future.
“With our wealth of experience we are able to help clients negotiate every stage of a cross-border deal and structure it in all its complexity to ensure the right outcome”
Kerstin Fehre, Professor of Strategy for Vlerick Business School:
“The cross-border mid-market segment is a niche, but it is also an essential segment of the total M&A market. Like other segments, it was confronted with a challenging economic situation but was more stable in terms of average deal values than other parts of the market.”