Haavind Deals & Drinks 2025

Thank you to all who attended Haavind Deals & Drinks 2025. Your participation is highly appreciated. We believe bringing together experienced practitioners and decision-makers from across the M&A landscape, is key to creating a meeting place with good discussions and interesting new connections.

Looking forward, the M&A market stands out for its resilience and renewed momentum. New opportunities are emerging for both established dealmakers and newcomers, with an expanded focus across sectors and company types. Below, we’ve distilled the key opportunity areas identified and discussed by our expert speakers.

Nordic M&A Opportunities – Key Takeaways

Competitive pipeline and investor appetite: After the slowdown in 2022–2023, the Nordic M&A market has rebounded with strong momentum. There is a healthy pipeline of high-quality assets, competitive buyer fields, and valuation levels often matching or approaching the 2021 peak. This creates real opportunities, especially for well-prepared sellers and active buyers.
Second- and third-tier companies now in focus: The market is expanding beyond just “top-tier” assets. Even companies previously considered less desirable for M&A are successfully attracting multiple bidders, increasing opportunities for a broader range of businesses to participate in transactions.
PE pressure and strategic capital: Private equity sponsors have more “dry powder” than ever, and are under increasing pressure from LPs to deploy funds. This, alongside strategic buyers with strengthened balance sheets post-2023, offers significant funding and exit opportunities in coming months.
Sector hot spots: Business services, TMT (Technology, Media, Telecom), healthcare, and industrial/defense remain focal points for deals. The emergence of dedicated “defense sector teams” signals new sectoral M&A opportunities in response to geopolitical dynamics.
International interest: Over 40% of acquisition activity in large, competitive deals is driven by international buyers, supporting both cross-border opportunities and elevated valuations.
Buy & build scalability: The Aider example underlines how rapid scaling is possible with a buy-and-build approach focused as much on talent as on revenue, delivering organic growth and using innovative capital such as bond financing, enabling smaller companies to benefit as well.
People—and culture—matter: Acquisitions focused on cultural fit and people (not just financials) lead to more sustainable post-merger integration and lasting value creation. This “talent-first” approach is emerging as a Nordic competitive advantage.
Infrastructure deal flow is accelerating: Institutional allocations to infrastructure in the Nordics are growing. The region’s investment needs for energy, transport, digital, data centers, and nearshoring, open up a wave of small and mid-cap opportunities, especially as private capital steps in while public spending shifts toward defense and welfare.
Favorable fundamentals for Nordic infrastructure: Compared to most European markets, the Nordics are seen as offering lower regulatory risk, stable institutions, and faster growth. Market neglect of infrastructure renewals means ongoing opportunities for investors across power grids, railways, and digital sectors.
Company transformation unlocks value: Orkla’s transition to an industrial investment company, with carve-outs, tailored incentives, and lean corporate structures, led to significant shareholder value creation, demonstrating that business model change can be a major opportunity for value unlocking.
Deal process innovation pays off: Process design and preparation are essential, warming up buyers in advance, balancing competition vs. overhype, and structuring clear, navigable transactions increases deal success in a still fragile market.
Flexible dealmaking: With longer processes, rising execution risk and valuation challenges, creative approaches and flexible deal terms become more important, offering more ways for both buyers and sellers to get deals across the line.
Forward momentum—don’t wait: Rising confidence, a strong deal pipeline, and increasing competition mark this as a window for action. Proactive M&A strategies in 2025 are most likely to capture the upswing before the next cycle of uncertainty.