Welcome to our Public M&A trends publication for the year 2025.
Despite continuing geopolitical uncertainty, occasional market volatility and speculation around UK government policy, 2025 proved to be another strong year for public M&A. Significant levels of activity in Q2 helped to balance the drop in deal volume in H2, with the total number of firm offers announced in 2025 for UK public companies listed on the Main Market or AIM landing at 57, one up from 2024 and matching that seen in 2023.
2025 saw slightly increased interest from private equity-backed bidders. Activity was the strongest in the small and mid-cap space, supported by the continued valuation discount seen in UK public assets, which drew in private equity and US bidders looking to make opportunistic acquisitions at attractive valuations. Shareholder activism and engagement also played a key role in a number of offers in 2025, showcasing interesting tactics for shareholders to take action, publicly voice their views and influence situations.
The Travers Smith team acted on a number of offers made in 2025, and with an active pipeline, 2026 is expected to be another strong year for public M&A. We are currently acting for 1Spatial plc on its announced offer by VertiGIS Ltd, and we have several unannounced situations in the pipeline. We therefore continue to benefit from direct market knowledge and experience of UK public deals.
Please read on for our insights and analysis from the last year and get in touch with us if you have any queries about the content of this publication or if you would like to talk to us about a potential transaction. We would be delighted to work with you.
Selected 2025 experience
Safilo Group S.p.A. on its possible offer for Inspecs Group plc
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In this publication
UK public M&A figures in this publication are derived from announcements and offer documentation made publicly available and stored on Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law: What’s Market.
This publication is provided for general information only. It does not constitute legal or other professional advice.