Mergers and acquisition activity plummets in Northern Ireland at start of 2025

Mergers and acquisition activity plummeted in Northern Ireland in the first quarter of 2025, new data shows, with the type of big-ticket strategic acquisitions and investor buy-outs that characterised the market in 2024 conspicuous by their absence.

According to the latest M&A study by Experian Market IQ, there were just 44 transactions in the north between January and March, which was down by 39% on the 72 deals completed in the same quarter the year before.

It followed five consecutive quarters of growth, and was the lowest quarterly total since 2020, although the reported noted that Q1 is historically Northern Ireland’s quietest quarter for deal volume, and the figure could yet rise on revision.

The report said the M&A environment in the region has been significantly influenced by global macroeconomic challenges, and that uncertainty among investors and deal-makers was impacting the volume and pace of deal activity so far this year.

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However, over the period there were slight upturns in the volume of management buy-outs and institutional buyouts (IBOs), but corporate acquisitions declined by 45% (down to 23 transactions from 42 in the first quarter of 2024) as businesses adopted a more cautious approach to deal-making in the short term.

Inward investment remained relatively strong, with companies based in Sweden, the US, Ireland and the Cayman Islands completing deals in Northern Ireland during the first quarter, but outbound deals fell by 80% year on year.

Where deals were made, they skewed towards the lower end of the value spectrum, and a lack of activity in the large and mid-market value segments meant that transaction value fell by 79% year on year to one of the lowest quarterly totals on Experian record.

There was a Northern Irish element in around 3% of the total number of UK transactions by deal volume in Q1.

Belfast tech company Cloudsmith’s £18m Series B funding round was the biggest deal of the first quarter in Northern Ireland.

Cloudsmith, a cloud-based software supply chain security firm, received capital from Californian equity fund TCV alongside other US investors in its second major fundraising after an £11m deal in 2021.

Also in the development capital space, Stormharvester, developer of an AI software platform for automated water management, completed an £8.4m Series A funding round led by YFM Equity Partners, with additional participation from Emerald Technology Ventures.

Elsewhere, among significant corporate acquisitions in the first quarter, Dungannon-based gardening products specialist Westland Horticulture completed the acquisition of the holding company for wild bird feed business Bulldog Products, with funding from Danske Bank, and Verona Advisory, a vehicle for the investments of Paul Allen, acquired Courtney & Nelson, a Belfast-based confectionery wholesaler.

Notable buy-out deals included the acquisition of New Life Teeth, a next-gen dental implants business, by US alternative investment firm 57 Stars, while in the secondaries space, Ara Partners acquired a majority stake in waste collection and recycling business Natural World Products, providing an exit for MML Growth Capital Partners.