{"id":160,"date":"2024-02-16T11:45:54","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T11:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicmatrends.traverssmith.com\/?page_id=160"},"modified":"2026-02-12T11:09:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T11:09:28","slug":"forecast-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/publicmatrends.traverssmith.com\/2026\/forecast-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Forecast for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Public M&amp;A activity has remained resilient against a backdrop of challenging economic and geopolitical conditions, and despite the green shoots of a resurgent IPO market in H2 (with the IPOs of <em>Shawbrook<\/em>, <em>Beauty Tech <\/em>and <em>Princes<\/em>), the number of UK-listed companies continued its now annual decline in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We continue to see significant interest from both PE and trade buyers of UK plcs, and although there were only three firm offers in January 2026, there were numerous possible offers including the announcement of three strategic reviews. We therefore expect another strong year of deals in 2026, including continued consolidation in the real estate sector and announcement of strategic reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Public companies with a market cap below \u00a3500 million are likely to remain of interest to overseas buyers.&nbsp; Further, boards of smaller listed companies are likely to continue to look for de-listing opportunities which save the business the cost of being a UK plc and provide growth opportunities through the deployment of capital of new private owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, as good companies continue to leave the market, institutional shareholders may resist opportunistic valuations harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Changes to the UK public offers and admissions to trading regime in January 2026 have made it easier for listed companies to issue shares without the need for a prospectus, allowing them better access to share capital for offer consideration purposes. Together with the removal of the requirement for shareholder approval for Class 1 transactions in 2024, this supports the ability of strategic buyers to launch larger transactions and may translate into further deal activity in 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-accent-5-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:8rem;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-78fe7594 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><a href=\"https:\/\/publicmatrends.traverssmith.com\/2026\/key-changes-to-the-takeover-code\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"linkBoxWrapper\">\n    \n    <div class=\"linkBox is-layout-constrained animated fadeInUp\" style=\"background-color: var(--TS-Racing-Green)\">\n        \n        <div class=\"linkAnimFill\" style=\"background-color: var(--TS-Turquoise)\"><\/div>\n        \n        <div class=\"linkText\" style=\"color: var(--TS-White)\">Key changes to the Takeover Code<\/div>\n        \n        <div class=\"iconContainer\" style=\"left: 1rem\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"icon\" src=\"https:\/\/publicmatrends.traverssmith.com\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/icons\/left-icon-White.svg\">\n        <\/div>\n        \n    <\/div>\n\n<\/a>\t\t<style>.linkBox, .linkText, .linkAnimFill, .iconContainer {\n    --TS-Gold: #A38000;\n    --TS-Copper: #C35500;\n    --TS-Terracotta: #EE7442;\n    --TS-Turquoise: #82C7B3;\n    --TS-Apple: #A3C961;\n    --TS-Fossil: #F4F0D4;\n    --TS-Aubergine: #4E1649;\n    --TS-Racing-Green: #0F3F32;\n    --TS-Oxford-Blue: #001F49;\n    --TS-Prussian-Blue: #444541;\n    --TS-Black: #000000;\n    --TS-White: #FFFFFF;\n}\n\n.linkBoxWrapper {\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    margin-bottom: 1rem;\n    height: 100%;\n}\n\n.linkBox {\n    padding: 4rem 1rem 1rem;\n    width: calc(100% - 2rem);\n    height: calc(100% - 5rem);\n    position: relative;\n    overflow: hidden;\n}\n\n.linkAnimFill {\n    height: calc(100% + 2rem);\n    width: calc(100% + 2rem);\n    position: absolute;\n    top: 100%;\n    left: 0;\n    z-index: 1;\n    transition-duration: 0.3s;\n}\n\n.linkBox:hover .linkAnimFill {\n    top: 0;\n}\n\n.linkText {\n    z-index: 2;\n    position: relative;\n    font-weight: bold;\n    font-size: 1.5rem;\n}\n\n.iconContainer {\n    width: 2rem;\n    height: 2rem;\n    overflow: hidden;\n    position: absolute;\n    top: 1rem;\n    z-index: 2;\n}<\/style>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><a href=\"https:\/\/publicmatrends.traverssmith.com\/2026\/your-travers-smith-contacts\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"linkBoxWrapper\">\n    \n    <div class=\"linkBox is-layout-constrained animated fadeInUp\" style=\"background-color: var(--TS-Racing-Green)\">\n        \n        <div class=\"linkAnimFill\" style=\"background-color: var(--TS-Turquoise)\"><\/div>\n        \n        <div class=\"linkText\" style=\"color: var(--TS-White)\">Your Travers Smith contacts<\/div>\n        \n        <div class=\"iconContainer\" style=\"right: 1rem\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"icon\" src=\"https:\/\/publicmatrends.traverssmith.com\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/icons\/right-icon-White.svg\">\n        <\/div>\n        \n    <\/div>\n\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public M&amp;A activity has remained resilient against a backdrop of challenging economic and geopolitical conditions, and despite the green shoots of a resurgent IPO market in H2 (with the IPOs of Shawbrook, Beauty Tech and Princes), the number of UK-listed companies continued its now annual decline in 2025. We continue to see significant interest from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":542,"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"wp-custom-template-2024-content-page","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-160","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Forecast for 2026 - Public Trends 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/publicmatrends.traverssmith.com\/2026\/forecast-for-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forecast for 2026 - Public Trends 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Public M&amp;A activity has remained resilient against a backdrop of challenging economic and geopolitical conditions, and despite the green shoots of a resurgent IPO market in H2 (with the IPOs of Shawbrook, Beauty Tech and Princes), the number of UK-listed companies continued its now annual decline in 2025. 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