Europe’s M&A and private equity market has entered 2026 with significantly larger and more selective transactions while regaining momentum. According to a new report by Drooms, a leading European due diligence platform and PitchBook, a private capital financial research platform, the UK continues to strengthen its position as Europe’s dominant private markets hub, despite growing geopolitical and regulatory complexity across the region.
The report, Executing in an Era of Market Complexities: European M&A and PE Trends and the Technology Imperative, highlights how capital is increasingly focused on fewer but larger transactions, while investors simultaneously favour lower-risk add-on acquisitions and buy-and-build strategies.
According to the report, the number of European PE transactions reached a near-decade-high of 8,187 deals in 2025. M&A activity also remained elevated at 18,485 transactions. At the same time, 2026 is already seeing significantly larger and more selective transactions: the average PE deal size in Europe has risen to €359.7 million year-to-date, up from €289 million in full-year 2025, while the average M&A deal size now stands at €546.3 million.
The UK generated €292.3 billion in M&A deal value and €169.4 billion in PE deal value in 2025 – the highest levels of any European market analysed in the report. With 4,545 M&A deals and 1,857 PE transactions, the UK remains Europe’s most active private capital ecosystem by both value and volume.
