‘Strategic buyers are revising their M&A strategy’

PwC Belgium is currently working on their annual survey which will be released soon. In it, the M&A advisory firm will look in depth at the main developments currently driving the market.

One noticeable result PwC already shared with MandA is that more than 70 percent of the strategic buyers that participated in PwC’s M&A Survey 2024 revised their M&A strategy in the past year.

At the M&A Forum of April 18 hosted by PwC, it was already obvious that the current market is incredibly dynamic, which requires much agility from the strategists. “We are indeed in a period of immense change, but the speed of change is also constantly increasing”, said Ruben Gofflo, M&A director at Cegeka. “For some entrepreneurs this is paralyzing, for others it is not. I think companies that dare to take a leap now can take a huge lead over their competitors. Of course, this should not happen blindly, you do have to consider what is happening around you. Still, companies that have a culture that embraces change do have an edge today.”

One of the major drivers of change is artificial intelligence which will also be discussed at length in PwC’s annual survey.

One result of the survey is that more than 70 percent of the financial investors that participated to PwC’s M&A Survey 2024 want to use AI to streamline the M&A process going forward.

At the M&A Forum of April 18, Véronique Gillis already reflected on the use of AI in M&A. “In deal sourcing, AI can be a very big help”, she said. “By identifying targets that could potentially be a match. That way, you go from a long list to a short list a lot faster and a lot more efficiently. It will also change our job. The role of the consultant will not go away any time soon, but by using data, we can work faster and add more value.”

Stay tuned for more updates on PwC’s annual M&A survey coming soon.