Our corporate M&A team advised on just under 20% of all UK public bids made in 2023, and with an active 2024 pipeline, we continue to benefit from direct insight and market knowledge of UK public deals.
Despite continued uncertainty in global debt markets and challenging economic and political conditions, we saw an increase in offers made in 2023 for public companies subject to the UK Takeover Code.
As we explore in the publication, there were a wave of offers in Q4 2023, giving rise to cautious optimism of another strong year of UK public M&A in 2024. We believe that many of the drivers for public M&A in 2023 remain, and buyers (particularly overseas and those backed by private equity) continue to be interested in quality UK assets. 2023 was a popular year for mid-cap and AIM-listed public companies, particularly in the technology, financial and healthcare sectors.
