Mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies: October to December 2025

• The total estimated value of inward mergers and acquisitions (M&A) saw a notable increase in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2025, the highest since Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2021, while the values of domestic and outward M&A decreased.

• The value of inward M&A (foreign companies acquiring UK companies) during Quarter 4 2025 was £27.4 billion, £19.8 billion more than in Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2025 (£7.6 billion); this was largely because of an increase in the number of deals over £1 billion.

• The value of domestic M&A (UK companies acquiring other UK companies) was £1.8 billion during Quarter 4 2025, which was £5.3 billion lower than in Quarter 3 2025 (£7.1 billion).

• The value of outward M&A (UK companies acquiring foreign companies) was £1.7 billion in Quarter 4 2025, which was £1.7 billion lower than in the previous quarter (£3.4 billion).

• The provisional combined number of M&A involving a change in majority share ownership was 444 in Quarter 4 2025; this was a fall of 53 compared with the previous year.

• There were an estimated 165 acquisitions involving a change in majority share ownership in October 2025, followed by a fall to 153 in November and further fall to 126 in December 2025.

• We have produced domestic and cross-border M&A datasets by industry for the years 2019 to 2025; these are available in the datasets accompanying this bulletin.

The provisional total combined number of monthly domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in October 2025 was 165. The number fell to 153 in November before falling further during December 2025 (126).

Domestic monthly M&A recorded 42 transactions in October 2025, increasing to 62 during November before decreasing to 48 in December.

Outward monthly M&A recorded 31 transactions in October 2025, falling slightly to 22 in November and remaining at 22 in December.

Inward monthly M&A saw 92 acquisitions in October 2025, decreasing to 69 during November and 56 in December.

The Bank of England's Agent's summary of business conditions – December 2025 reported that:

"The cost of investment, whether finance or the actual capital investment itself, is mentioned much less now as a deterrent to investment intentions – uncertainty seems to be the dominant consideration".

This same report stated that "Mergers and acquisitions activity remains subdued, with deals taking longer due to increased due diligence and regulatory uncertainty".

The provisional value of inward mergers and acquisitions (M&A), foreign companies acquiring UK companies in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2025 was £27.4 billion. This included a few large acquisitions, which were valued at more than £1 billion. This was £19.8 billion more than the value reported for the previous quarter (£7.6 billion), and £23.4 billion more than Quarter 4 2024 (£4.0 billion).

A notable inward M&A transaction that completed in Quarter 4 2025 was:

• Deliveroo Plc of the UK, which was acquired by Doordash INC of the USA

Number of quarterly inward mergers and acquisitions transactions involving UK companies

There were an estimated 217 completed inward M&A transactions involving a change in majority share ownership in Quarter 4 2025. This was 43 more than in the previous quarter (174) and 28 more than Quarter 4 2024 (189).

The provisional value of domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&A), UK companies acquiring other UK companies during Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2025, was £1.8 billion. This was £5.3 billion lower than Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2025 (£7.1 billion), and £4.6 billion lower than Quarter 4 2024 (£6.4 billion).

A notable domestic acquisition that was completed in Quarter 4 2025 was:

• E2SGroup Ltd of the UK, which was acquired by Halma Plc, also of the UK

Number of quarterly domestic mergers and acquisitions transactions involving UK companies

There were an estimated 152 domestic M&A transactions involving a change in majority share ownership in Quarter 4 2025. This was 12 fewer than Quarter 3 (164), and 79 fewer than Quarter 4 2024 (231).

The provisional estimated value of outward mergers and acquisitions (M&A), UK companies acquiring foreign companies in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2025, was £1.7 billion. This was £1.7 billion lower than the value for the previous quarter (£3.4 billion), and £0.1 billion lower than Quarter 4 2024 (£1.8 billion).

A notable outward acquisition in Quarter 4 2025 was:

• Coats Group Plc of the UK, which acquired Ortholite Holdings LLC of the USA

Number of quarterly outward mergers and acquisitions transactions involving UK companies

There were an estimated 75 outward M&A deals during Quarter 4 2025. This was 14 fewer than the previous quarter (89), and two less than Quarter 4 2024 (77). 

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&As 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. Therefore, users are advised to take care when comparing recent estimates with the number of transactions reported for quarters before 2018.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022. 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 the 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 involving UK companies (M&A) 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 M&A transactions. This information is presented in the following way:

• transactions are only recorded in our statistics once the deal has been legally completed, with 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 our accompanying datasets. These are typically fewer in number per 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 were completed in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 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.