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EMU was the largest sector in value terms, with €4.84bn worth of transactions in 2025 – a 25% market share.
In addition to Ardian's acquisition of Energia, a significant contribution to total deal value came from the €1bn acquisition of the 500MW Greenlink Interconnector by UK-headquartered Equitix and Norway-based Statkraft. The Greenlink project increases the interconnection between the power systems in Ireland and Great Britain through sub-sea and underground cables and is Ireland's first privately owned interconnector.
More broadly, Ireland's commitment to net zero carbon emissions, including key goals under its Climate Action Plan 2025 such as 51% reduction in emissions by 2030, continues to drive investment in renewable energy and clean power projects. This policy is also having an ongoing impact on M&A – for example, 2025 saw Ireland's Lirion Power pay €156m to acquire a portfolio of six onshore wind assets from UK investment firm Schroders Greencoat with a number of other sales processes underway in 2025 for onshore wind and solar assets.
PMB was Ireland's second largest sector for M&A activity in value terms. This is partly down to the Avadel-Alkermes megadeal – however, five of the top 20 deals this year also took place in the sector. Ireland's longstanding breadth and depth in the PMB industry continue to attract international interest, with four of the top five deals in the sector in 2025 involving an overseas successful bidder.
One notable example was InvestIndustrial's €1.2bn acquisition of the healthcare division of DCC plc. It offers an unusual mix, with a business built on two fast-growing platforms – HBI, which is focused on complex nutritional supplements and beauty products, and Vital, a leading medical device manufacturer and supplier.
In volume terms, meanwhile, business services was the busiest sector of the year in 2025, ahead of TMT and financial services. Consolidation in the fragmented advisory and intermediary services sectors continues to drive dealmaking; however, transactions tend to be at the lower end of the value spectrum, underlined by the fact that while business services deals accounted for 22% of Irish M&A by volume last year, they accounted for only 5% of value.
One standout trend in 2025 was a marked decline in the value of deals in the TMT sector. TMT transactions accounted for just 9% of all Irish M&A deals by value last year, down from 56% in 2024. In volume terms, the decline was less striking, with TMT deals down only 1% accounting for 21% of all transactions in 2025 compared to 22% in 2024. Nonetheless, TMT slipped from first to second place in the list of most active sectors in 2025.
The question now is whether this easing is temporary or a trend. TMT dealmaking last year appears to have been affected by trade tensions – with large countries including the US and China at odds over access to key technologies – but also by concern about valuations. On listed markets, there was growing anxiety about US big tech valuations in particular, while concerns expressed by technology leaders including Google CEO Sundar Pichai also raised fears about an investment bubble.
Nevertheless, the burgeoning interest in AI is likely to be an ongoing deal driver and it is an area in which Ireland punches above its weight. Growing industry adoption and investment in AI continue to enhance Ireland's competitive standing. As 2026 progresses the downward trend in TMT dealmaking could well be reversed, particularly given Ireland's strengths across a broad range of existing and emerging technologies.
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