State Of The M&A Market In Australia

The M&A market in Australia is very buoyant right now. Despite uncertainties around the world due to geo-political events, there is a steady flow of M&A deals and proposals, which augurs well for 2026.

In brief

• Worldwide M&A for 2025 was up 49% by value over the period. By number, it was slightly down, but there were still 52,000 deals.
• HSF Kramer topped the league tables in Australia for 2025 with 100 deals credited with a value over $32 billion.

State of the market

The M&A market in Australia and around the world is very buoyant as we head further into 2026. We have seen a steady flow of M&A proposals emerge this year so far and, subject to a slight pause due the situation in the Middle East, I believe more transactions will occur.

Australian M&A activity tends to follow global trends, so it is worthwhile looking at some statistics from overseas. According to LSEG Data and Analytics:¹

• Worldwide M&A for full year 2025 was at a 4 year high. Activity totalled US$4.6 trillion during 2025, an increase of 49% compared to 2024. It was the strongest annual period for deal making since 2021.
• Over 52,000 deals were announced during 2025, which is actually a decrease of 3% compared to the previous year and a five-year low. In other words, there are (slightly) fewer deals, but they have greater value.
• US deal making accounted for 50% of overall worldwide M&A during 2025. This is the highest percentage for US deal making since 1998. It is difficult to come up with reasons for the strength of this market that is not influenced by policies and decisions from President Trump. The value of M&A activity for US targets totalled US$2.3 trillion during 2025.
• There were 68 deals around the world (though mainly in the US) with a value greater than US$10 billion in 2025, the strongest period for such megadeals, by number, since records began in 1980. The busiest sector, not surprisingly, was Technology, with transactions totalling US$843.3 billion during 2025. This sector accounted for 18% of overall deal value.
• Private equity backed M&A accounted for 20% of M&A activity during 2025, slightly down from 23% for full year 2024. The overall value was US$918.9 billion, an increase of 30% compared to the previous year and the strongest full year for private equity deal making in three years. Full year 2025 ranks as the third strongest annual period for PE-backed M&A since records began in 1980.
• The biggest deals were competing bids for Warner Brothers Discovery by Netflix and Paramount, each with a value around US$100 billion.

In Australia, HSF Kramer topped the law firm league tables for 2025. LSEG credited us with 100 deals with a total value of US$32.7 billion.

I think there is a healthy M&A market right now in Australia, which is borne out by a quick look at this list of the largest transactions in the market right now:

1. SGH and Steel Dynamics Inc's $15 billion proposal for BlueScope Steel.* This has had massive media coverage.
2. Macquarie Asset Management consortium's $9.2 billion bid for Qube.
3. Brookfield's $4 billion proposal to acquire National Storage REIT.
4. CC Capital's $3.2 billion scheme proposal for Insignia (which has taken over 12 months to get to the stage of seeking shareholder approval).
5. Predictive Discovery* and Robex Resources proposed $2.17 billion merger of equals.
6. Magellan Financial Group's proposed $1.6 billion deal with Barrenjoey Capital Partners.
7. Australian United Investment Company's* proposed $1.3 billion acquisition of Diversified United Investment Ltd. This continues consolidation in the LIC sector.
8. Challenger and KKR's $1.16 billion proposal to acquire Pepper Money.²
9. Aura Consolidated's* $1 billion proposal to acquire Qoria. This is a US company acquiring an ASX listed entity and seeking its own ASX listing, effectively redomiciling to Australia.
10. Energy Fuels Inc's* $465 million proposal to acquire Australian Strategic Materials Ltd.

HSF Kramer has a key role on 5 of these transactions (our clients are those marked with an asterisk). We are delighted to continue as the market's choice for M&A deals in Australia.

Footnotes

1. LSEG, formerly known as London Stock Exchange Group, is global financial infrastructure and data provider.

2. It was announced yesterday that this deal will not proceed as it is 'not reasonably capable of execution.'

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