Public M&A Report

In the shadows of previous record years, the German market for public takeovers suffered a significant setback in 2025: only 20 offers were made for shares in target companies with a market capitalisation of around EUR 16.9 billion. This marked the lowest level since 2015. The Noerr Public M&A Report 01/2026, published by Volker Land and Stephan Schulz, both partners specialising in Corporate/M&A and Equity and Capital Markets Law at the Hamburg office, analyses this development. For the first time, the report broadens the perspective to include the actual offer volume – providing a more realistic picture of market activity.

The report analyses the number and volume of offers approved by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) under the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (WpÜG), their distribution across the small, mid and large cap segments, and the trend in premium levels over a multi-year comparison. Furthermore, the report examines the reasoned statements of the administrative bodies of the target companies and general market trends in the field of public M&A.

In addition to the market analysis, the report includes an article on the impact of key regulatory developments, in particular the new German Location Promotion Act, on delisting and delisting in Germany as a capital market location. A further article examines the European Court of Justice ruling in the ‘Svema Trade’ case regarding the rebuttability of the presumption of fairness in squeeze-outs under takeover law, which calls into question the current practice regarding Section 39a of the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act.