Mid-year update 2025: M&A and IPO trends and insights in Norway
Wiersholm’s Corporate team have summarised the M&A and IPOs activities in Norway in the first half of 2025 and share some thoughts of what they expect in the second half of 2025.
In our 17th edition of the Wiersholm M&A and IPO trend report, we once again analyse the Norwegian transaction landscape and share our perspectives on M&A and IPO prospects for the period ahead.
2025 started off relatively slow but picked up towards the end of the first quarter and we have seen high activity levels in the second quarter, in particular within private M&A. Overall, the M&A market in 1H 2025 has seen activity levels broadly in line with recent years. Market consolidation and buy-and-build strategies are driving high deal volumes within specific sectors such as construction and business services, while technology deals continue to fuel deal volume and deal value in the Norwegian M&A market. The aggregated deal value for the period has increased significantly compared to the same period in the two preceding years, driven by several high value deals.
The IPO market, meanwhile, remains slow, mirroring the activity levels during the same period in 2024. Nonetheless, a shift has been observed towards listings on Euronext Oslo Børs rather than Euronext Growth.
Geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic volatility continue to influence the market conditions, but investors seem to have become accustomed to such uncertainties. We have seen an increase in incoming transactions in the second quarter of 2025 and expect that M&A activity levels will stay strong for the rest of the year, and potentially also into 2026.
Key market observations
- The total number of reported M&A transactions in the first half of 2025 came in at 447, reflecting a slight (7.5%) decrease compared to the same period in 2024 (483 deals). Despite fewer deals, the total deal value saw a remarkable uptick by approximately 60% compared to the same period of 2024.
- Increased deal volumes in sectors such as business services and construction, driven by industry consolidation and buy-and-build strategies. The highest number of deals in the first half of 2025 was found within business services, meaning that technology is not the leading sector by deal volume for the first time in years. In terms of deal size, Energy, Mining & Utilities and Transport represent the two largest industries so far this year, together accounting for almost half of the total deal value.
- Private Equity (PE/VC) deal activity is in line with recent years with a total of 74 deals so far in 2025, now targeting a wider spectrum of industries than in previous years, which were more concentrated around the technology sector. The sector expansion may suggest a more diversified and adaptable investment strategy.
- Domestic deals continue to represent the majority of completed transactions in 2025, Sweden remains the most significant foreign investor / buyer, and combined with Denmark and Finland, the Nordics stood for 86% of the total deal volume, while only making up roughly 43% of the deal value.
- The IPO market remains slow, with Sentia ASA as the only «real» IPO during the first half of the year. In total there were 6 listings (including uplistings) across Euronext Oslo’ marketplaces, five on Oslo Børs, one on Euronext Growth Oslo.
- We continue to see robust public takeover activity in the first half of 2025. In addition to the public offers announced at the end of 2024 we have seen 8 new takeovers announced across trading venues.
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