Public M&A Report

In 2024, the market for public takeovers in Germany was characterised by a high number of 33 transactions (2023: 21) with a relatively low average offer volume per offer of EUR 1.25 billion (2023: EUR 1.86 billion). The large cap segment also reflected this trend; in this sub-segment the lowest average offer volume since 2020 was observed. A striking number of transactions took place in the small cap segment. The market recovery observed since 2022 thus continued. The large number of delisting offers shows that a market shakeout continues to take place on the stock exchange.

These are the essential findings of the 01/2025 edition of the Noerr Public M&A Report, in which the editors Volker Land and Stephan Schulz, both partners in the Corporate/M&A and Capital Markets Teams of Noerr’s Hamburg office, analyse the market for public takeovers in the year 2024. The report presents a multi-year comparison of the number and volume of all offers pursuant to the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act approved by the German Financial Supervisory Authority BaFin, the distribution of these offers across the small-cap, mid-cap and large-cap segments, the development of premium levels as well as general public M&A market trends.

In addition to the market report, the current issue of the report contains articles by Philip M. Schmoll, Frankfurt am Main, entitled "Takeovers of issuers in the open market" and by Jörg-Peter Kraack, Hamburg, on the preliminary ruling of the Federal Court of Justice to the European Court of Justice of 22 October 2024 (Ref.: II ZR 193/22) entitled "Is the attribution of voting rights of acting in concert contrary to European law?".