Mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies: April to June 2025

• The number of completed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) increased in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025, sustained by a higher number of deals in April.

• The provisional combined number of M&A involving a change in majority share ownership was 501 during Quarter 2 2025; this was 89 more than during Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025 (412).

• There was an increase in the estimated number of monthly domestic and cross-border acquisitions involving a change in majority share ownership (216) in April 2025, followed by a fall to 138 in May before increasing to 147 during June 2025.

• The value of domestic M&A (UK companies acquiring other UK companies) during Quarter 2 2025 was £3.4 billion, which was £0.6 billion higher than in Quarter 1 2025 (£2.8 billion).

• The value of outward M&A (UK companies acquiring foreign companies) was £4.0 billion in Quarter 2 2025, £4.0 billion lower than in the previous quarter (£8.0 billion).

• Inward M&A (foreign companies acquiring UK companies) during Quarter 2 2025 was £9.3 billion, £11.8 billion less than the value in Quarter 1 2025 (£21.1 billion).

The provisional total combined number of monthly domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in April was 216, which was relatively high compared with the same month in recent years. The number of M&A fell to 138 in May, before rising again to 147 transactions in June 2025.

Domestic monthly M&A recorded 100 transactions in April 2025, before decreasing to 69 during May and 59 in June 2025.

Outward monthly M&A saw broadly the same number of transactions during April (28), May (30) and June 2025 (29).

Inward monthly M&A saw 88 acquisitions in April 2025, falling to 39 during May before increasing to 59 in June 2025.

The Bank of England's Summary of business conditions for Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025 reported that:

"Investment intentions seem subdued but broadly stable and not quite at the lows seen in previous months. There are fewer references to significant cuts in the year ahead. Several uncertainties are weighing on the confidence needed to commit to future investment plans, raising the bar for return on investment and leading to increased scrutiny of capital expenditure plans. Contacts cite fragile demand, trade developments, government tax, and Labour policies squeezed profitability and costs of capital goods as factors".

This same report stated:

 "Business services contacts report that their clients are managing budgets more closely and delaying spending decisions because of cost pressures and greater uncertainty. Merger and acquisition activity is more subdued owing to higher uncertainty".

The provisional value of domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&A), UK companies acquiring other UK companies during Quarter 2 (Apr to Jun) 2025, was £3.4 billion. This was a slight increase of £0.6 billion when compared with both Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025 (£2.8 billion) and Quarter 2 2024 (£2.8 billion).  

A notable domestic M&A transaction that completed in Quarter 2 2025 was:

• Urban Logistics Reit PLC of the UK, which was acquired by London Metric Property PLC, also of the UK

Number of quarterly domestic mergers and acquisitions transactions involving UK companies

There were an estimated 228 completed domestic M&A transactions involving a change in majority share ownership in Quarter 2 2025; 81 more transactions than in the previous quarter (147) and 22 more than Quarter 2 2024 (206).

The provisional estimated value of outward mergers and acquisitions (M&A), UK companies acquiring foreign companies, was £4.0 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to Jun) 2025. This is £4.0 billion lower than in the previous quarter (£8.0 billion), and £0.5 billion less than Quarter 2 2024 (£4.5 billion).

Two large-valued outward acquisitions that completed in Quarter 2 2025 were:

• DAZN Group UK Ltd of the UK, which acquired Foxtel Group of Australia

• AstraZeneca PLC of the UK, which acquired EsoBiotec SA of Belgium

Number of quarterly outward mergers and acquisitions transactions involving UK companies

There were an estimated 87 outward acquisitions involving a change in majority share ownership in Quarter 2 2025. This was 13 more than in the previous quarter (74) and five more than in Quarter 2 2024 (82).

The provisional estimated value of inward mergers and acquisitions (M&A), foreign companies acquiring UK companies, in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025, was £9.3 billion. This was £11.8 billion less than the value reported for the previous quarter (£21.1 billion), although £4.7 billion higher than Quarter 2 2024 (£4.6 billion).

Notable inward acquisitions that completed in Quarter 2 2025 were:

• International Distribution Services PLC of the UK, which was acquired by EP Investment Sarl of Luxembourg

• TI Fluid Systems PLC of the UK, which was acquired by Apollo Global Management of Canada

Number of quarterly inward mergers and acquisitions transactions involving UK companies

There were an estimated 186 inward M&A transactions during Quarter 2 2025. This was five fewer than in the previous quarter (191) and 10 more than Quarter 2 2024 (176).

Domestic mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of UK resident companies acquiring other UK resident companies.

Inward mergers and acquisitions

Mergers, acquisitions and disposals of UK resident companies by foreign companies.

Outward mergers and acquisitions

Mergers, acquisitions and disposals of foreign companies abroad by UK resident companies.

Mergers and acquisitions transactions

M&A occur when one company takes control of another company. The internationally agreed definition of an M&A deal is when one company gains more than 50% of the ordinary shares (or voting rights) of the acquired company.

Disinvestments (disposal transactions)

Disinvestment, or disposal transactions, refers to a disposal of the ordinary share ownership of a subsidiary company.

Since Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) statistics fully incorporate the Bureau van Dijk (BVD) M&A, which has been renamed Moody's Orbis M&A, data source and methods. The introduction of this new data source increased the coverage of smaller M&A transactions and therefore resulted in a discontinuity in the number of transactions reported. Users are advised to take care when comparing recent estimates with the number of transactions reported for quarters prior to 2018.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 and in response, the UK government has imposed a range of economic sanctions on Russia from late February and early March 2022, as described in the Russia sanctions: guidance on GOV.UK. We will continue to monitor potential impact of the conflict and resulting sanctions in future quarterly releases.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Mergers and acquisitions Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

About Office for National Statistics datasets

The datasets for mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies have recently been reviewed to ensure that they meet the accessibility standards outlined in the Government Statistical Service (GSS) guidance on releasing statistics in spreadsheets. This is to ensure that all GSS outputs meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a legal requirement set out in The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

We welcome any feedback on these changes. Please share your feedback by emailing MA@ons.gov.uk.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in June 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".

Strengths and limitations

We produce statistics on the number and value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions. This information is presented so that:

• transactions are only recorded in our statistics once the deal has been legally completed

• each transaction has a value of at least £1 million

• the transactions result in a change of ultimate control of the target company

• all values are in current prices and therefore have not been adjusted for the effects of inflation

These are among the main reasons our M&A statistics can differ from those reported in other sources. There can be a substantial time gap between the point at which a deal is announced and when it is legally completed. In addition, in some cases, announced M&A deals do not take place.

Our statistics on disposals (or de-mergers) are also included in tables alongside this bulletin. These are typically fewer in number each quarter, which can lead to greater suppression of statistics to mitigate disclosure. The focus of this bulletin is on acquisitions, although some of the more complex deals can include the disposal of some part of the newly created corporate structure.

It is sometimes necessary to suppress figures for certain items to avoid disclosing information about an individual business. Further information on why statistics are suppressed is available in our Disclosure Control Policy.

It is not uncommon for the value of M&A transactions to vary considerably from one quarter to the next. This mainly reflects the nature of M&A activity in that these capture one-off deals. Therefore, if a particularly high-value M&A deal completes in a given quarter, it can make that quarter seem out of line with those that precede and follow it.

The volatility of M&A transactions also makes it difficult to link M&A statistics with other economic indicators -- such as gross domestic product -- or global events, because of the time it can take between announcing and completing a M&A deal. Therefore, it can be more informative to look at longer-term trends within M&A statistics rather than focusing on quarterly movements.

Details of any notable M&A deals that completed in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025 can be found in Sections 3, 4 and 5 of this statistical bulletin. Lists of notable completed M&As valued above £100 million and which took place in earlier quarters, can also be found in previously published Mergers and acquisitions quarterly bulletins.