Mergermarket, an independent mergers and acquisitions intelligence and data service, host its latest Remark event - the 4th German M&A and Private Equity Forum at the Düsseldorf Intercontinental Hotel.
The event will explore the M&A landscape for corporates and private equity in the region with various panel discussions and a presentation on the outlook for the coming year. Last year's event attracted over 250 delegates and this year is expected to be even more popular with fresh original content covering a wide array of topics and countries influencing M&A in Germany.
German dealmakers are confident of a rise in M&A deal volumes this year in a domestic market awash with cash. A dearth of targets means secondary transactions and corporate divestments will dominate and the mix of targets that come to market may be hard fought over.
A number of newly closed private equity funds active in Germany will all be looking to make new investments and these funds will need deals. Despite the availability of private equity capital in the market, financing and finding relevant targets will remain challenging.
Thomas Schulz, Partner at Noerr LLP, said ” Despite fundraising concerns, private equity is very active and some funds team up on a case by case basis to drive down cost and mitigate risk. Venture capital is on the rise and more and more alternative providers of finance, such as insurance companies and pension funds drive deals. 2013 should be a good year for PE in Germany.”
Favourable financing conditions could see an increase in the number of private equity deals. German companies will appeal to global strategic and private equity buyers due to region’s perceived resilient economy.
Mergermarket’s Head of Private Equity coverage, EMEA, Sarah Syed said “recovering markets have improved the availability of bank financing, which could see a flurry of sponsors bringing their portfolio companies to market. Assets bought in the boom times are coming to the end of traditional holding periods and sponsors will need to sell to return money to their institutional investors.”