Public M&A Report 01/2023

2022 was a weak year for the German public M&A market, both in terms of quantity and volume. A comparison with the record year of 2021 illustrates just how dramatic the 2022 decline was. Most notably, there were only nine transactions with a volume of more than EUR 100 million – the lowest number since 2014. 2022 also saw only seven takeover bids, the second-lowest number since 2014, while all other years – with one exception – had always been well into the double digits.

These are the essential findings of our analysis of the market for public takeovers in 2022 which are presented in the 01/2023 edition of the Noerr Public M&A Report by the report’s editors Volker Land and Stephan Schulz, both partners in the Corporate/M&A and Capital Markets Teams of Noerr’s Hamburg office. The report presents a multi-year comparison of the number and volume of all offers pursuant to the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act approved by the German Financial Supervisory Authority BaFin, the distribution of these offers across the small-cap, mid-cap and large-cap segments, the development of premium levels as well as general public M&A market trends.

The focus article is titled “The bidder's decision on the composition of the supervisory board of the target company“. In it, we discuss with the legal framework and practical procedures for replacing supervisory board members after the completion of public M&A transactions.