Cross-border mid-market M&A compass report 2024
A research report for Moore Global Corporate Finance
By Kerstin Fehre
Professor of Strategy
Wanlin Hu
Doctoral Researcher, Entrepreneurship
In an ever-increasingly globalised world, firms of all sizes are searching for opportunities to expand their business activities outside their home country. Cross-border merger & acquisition (M&A) is an important and common strategy for expanding abroad. It is seen as a means of facilitating entry into foreign markets, accessing new resources, capabilities and technologies, and diversification. Almost 25,000 cross-border mid-market mergers and acquisitions have been sealed in the past six years as ambitious firms look beyond their own borders for growth opportunities.
On behalf of Moore Global Corporate Finance, Vlerick Business School has analysed more than 36,000 completed-confirmed deals in the year 2024 and compared that with data for the years 2019-2023.
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 2024 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 48,000 transactions announced in 2024.
The main findings of the research were:
- There were 36,442 M&A deals completed last year, and cross-border transactions accounted for 33% of the total.
- Average deal size in the cross-border mid-market was €50.6 million in 2024, almost 7% higher than the €47.9 million average for 2019-2024.
- 61% of all cross-border deals took place in the mid-market.
- Almost 50% of cross-border mid-market deals involved acquirers from North America, a significant jump from 12 months previously.
- European acquirers are mainly active in the European market.
- Sustainability as a driver of deals almost doubled last year in cross-border mid-market M&A, while it stagnated or dropped in importance in some other sectors.
- Metals and metal products firms feature in the top five industries involved in cross-border mid-market for the first time.
- IT and healthcare remain among the most active sectors for cross-border mid-market M&A, with average deal values increasing compared to 2023.
Philippe Craninx, Chairman of Moore Global Corporate Finance, said:
"M&A is a powerful strategic tool that derives a major part of its added value from anticipating market evolution and correct timing. This fifth edition of our Compass report gives us a detailed understanding of what is driving deals and we see different patterns emerging in the US, UK and continental Europe.”
Kerstin Fehre, Professor of Strategy for Vlerick Business School, added:
“Our analysis reveals that the cross-border mid-market segment outperformed the total M&A market last year in terms of volume and growth in the average value of deals. We see that this part of the corporate finance sector follows its own logic and seems to be more resilient than other parts of the M&A market.”
The report confirms that cross-border deals remain attractive, even though they can be more complex to complete and require multinational teams of advisors to negotiate territorial differences in regulatory and financial regimes.