Deal activities primarily in medium-sized companies – focus on the health sector

Frankfurt It was one of the last big hits in Germany for private investment companies: the private equity houses Advent and Cinven took over Thyssen-Krupp’s elevator business for 17 billion euros around three years ago. But mega-transactions of this kind are currently a long way off.

A clearly noticeable slowdown in the market for private equity deals (PE deals) started last year, especially in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This is proven by the latest figures from the consulting firm PwC: only 437 transactions took place there in 2022 – around a third less than in the previous year. The total value of the deals fell by 52 percent to 18.1 billion euros, the study shows.

In the case of PE deals, investment funds buy parts of a group or medium-sized companies, convert them and sell them on after several years or list them on the stock exchange. For years, deals worth billions were the order of the day. But the rapid turnaround in interest rates by the central banks has major consequences for the industry.