Who dares wins: European M&A Outlook 2020

European dealmaking downcast, but distressed opportunities emerging

London, 22 September 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on European dealmaking activity. However, opportunities remain for those willing to take risks, according to the eighth edition of the European M&A Outlook, published by CMS in association with Mergermarket.

The report is a comprehensive assessment of dealmaking sentiment in the European M&A market.  It canvasses the opinions of 230 senior Europe-based executives, from corporate and private equity firms, about their expectations for M&A in the year ahead.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia lead the rankings of the 21 CEE countries where employers and employees have to pay the highest mandatory contributions to social and health insurance. This is according to the international MAZARS CEE Tax Guide, which monitors the development of direct and indirect tax, labour expenses, wage levels and the area of transfer pricing.

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a most dramatic effect on the hotel business throughout Europe and words like ‘unprecedented’ and ‘unique’ are used liberally to describe the situation. Performance data from STR for the first half of the year compared with 2019 show how dramatic the effect on the hotel sector has been with RevPAR since March 2020 nose-diving, with many hotels closing their doors. 

News in legislation

• Act on the Registration of Beneficial Owners