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Dr. Ralf Ulrich Braunagel
Partner, Leader Private Equity at PwC Germany
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Record value on fewer deals
DACH M&A has split in two: a booming large-cap market and a mid-market that keeps thinning. Our half-yearly analysis of 1,700 transactions across Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Key metrics
Four things that changed in the first half of 2026
DACH M&A did not simply get busier. The shape of the market changed — in size, in sector, in who is buying and at what price.
1. Record value, fewer deals — the market has bifurcated
Value hit a series high while volume sat below the H2 2025 peak. Thirty-six megadeals and 39 big deals stood against just 294 deals below €250m, the lowest count in the series. The ten largest transactions alone made up 53% of H1 2026 value.
2. Industrials have overtaken tech
Industrial & Services was the largest sector for the second half-year running — 637 deals, 37% of volume — while TMT fell to a series low of 438 deals (26%). Industrials also held four of the ten largest deals of the half.
3. Financial sponsors: stable share, record activity, new names
Sponsors accounted for 45% of volume, close to their five-year average of 47% — but the trailing-twelve-month count of 1,612 sponsor deals is the highest in the series. Aurelius, Qualitas, Warburg Pincus, Triton and Astorg led by deal count.
4. Valuations have re-rated
The median EV/EBITDA multiple of 14.9x is the highest since H2 2021, against 7.3x a year ago — in line with the shift towards large, high-quality strategic assets. Germany contributed 72% of volume, Switzerland 19% and Austria a record 9%.
Deal volume and value trends
A record half-year for value on broadly flat volume
At €426m, the average disclosed ticket was 35% larger than in H2 2025 and more than twice as large as in any period before 2025. Kone’s €29.4bn acquisition of TK Elevator alone accounted for 19% of half-year value.
Deal value (€bn) and deal volume, H1 2021–H1 2026
Sources: Unquote and Refinitiv databases, Mergermarket. The two series are plotted on independent scales and are not comparable in height; deal value is shown for deals with a disclosed value only.
Deep dive - sector rotation
Industrials have overtaken tech — and it is structural
Industrial & Services volume has risen for two consecutive half-years (371 → 616 → 637) and now sits 11 percentage points above its five-year average. TMT has fallen since H2 2025 and sits six points below its own. The crossover happened in H2 2025.
Deal volume: Industrial & Services vs. TMT
Sources: Unquote and Refinitiv databases, Mergermarket, PwC analysis.
What is pulling industrials up
Energy transition and grid assets (Amprion), defence and engineering platforms (Everllence, Flender, Versigent), carve-outs by listed conglomerates under activist and capital-allocation pressure, and sponsors re-entering cyclical industrials at reset valuations.
Why TMT has thinned
Buyers have been increasingly selective since the 2021–22 software boom — fewer but larger transactions (Delivery Hero, SAP, Terra Quantum). Consumer, Health, Energy, Financial Services and Real Estate all sit within three points of their five-year averages: the change was concentrated in the two largest sectors.
Deep dive - a bifurcated market
The top end is carrying the market
Deals of €250m and above rose to 75 in H1 2026 — the highest in the series and 79% above H1 2021 — while deals below €250m fell to 294, down 45% from the H1 2023 peak of 539.
Deal volume by size band (disclosed-value deals)
Read value metrics with care. Only 22% of H1 2026 deals carried a disclosed value, against 38% in H1 2024. The €426m average therefore describes a smaller, larger-cap sample; the median disclosed deal remains well inside the mid-market. Pair value-based conclusions with volume-based ones.
Deep dive - financial sponsors
Sponsors have not lost ground — strategics added to it
Sponsor share of volume has settled in the mid-40s since H2 2024 after peaking above 52% in H1 2023 and H1 2024. In absolute terms, activity is at a record: 1,612 deals in the twelve months to June 2026.
Financial investor deals, last twelve months
Sponsors led three of the ten largest H1 2026 deals — Bain/Everllence (€7.4bn), Triton/Flender (€3.0bn) and Axiom SPAC/Terra Quantum (€3.0bn) — €13.4bn, or 16% of top-ten value. Over the previous five years only one of the ten largest was sponsor-led.
Most active investors by deal count, H1 2026
Aurelius is the only five-year leader still in the H1 2026 top five. HV Capital, Ufenau, EQT and Waterland gave way to international mid-cap sponsors building DACH exposure. Exit pressure on 2019–21 vintages and record dry powder point to continued sponsor-led activity, particularly in industrial carve-outs and healthcare.
Top 10 DACH deals
Ten deals, €83.7bn — 53% of the half-year
Strategic buyers led seven of the ten, sponsors three. Eight of the ten targets are German and seven of the ten acquirers are foreign — inbound capital remains the dominant pattern in large-cap DACH M&A.
Sources: Unquote and Refinitiv databases, Mergermarket. Kone’s acquisition of TK Elevator is the largest DACH transaction of the last five years.
Deal multiples
Valuations have re-rated sharply
The median EV/EBITDA multiple rose to 14.9x from 9.5x in H2 2025 and 7.3x in H1 2025 — the highest since H2 2021 — consistent with the shift towards large, high-quality strategic assets.
The H1 2026 mean has been distorted by transactions with near-zero EBITDA; the median is the only robust measure for the half.
Median EV/EBITDA, DACH deals
What this means for dealmakers
Three implications the H1 2026 data points to for origination, execution and pricing.
Large-cap pipelines are the strongest in five years
The pipeline for large-cap advisory — carve-outs, public-to-privates, cross-border strategic combinations — is the strongest it has been at any point in the last five years, with 75 deals of €250m or more in the half.
Mid-market origination needs targeting
With only 294 deals below €250m, broad-based processes are yielding less. Sponsor add-ons and succession-driven Mittelstand sales are where the volume sits, rather than broad-based investment processes.
Price discipline matters again at 14.9x
The median multiple has roughly doubled in twelve months, from 7.3x to 14.9x, on a disclosed sample that has shrunk from 38% of deals in H1 2024 to 22% today. Both halves of that sentence matter when benchmarking a price.
Contact us
Elena Schulte-Ladbeck
Senior Manager, Head of PE Business Development, PwC Germany
Tel: +49 170 3382 130