Forvis Mazars CEE deal advisory highlights 2025

The past year has been formative for dealmaking across CEE, characterised by resilience, strategic repositioning and a renewed sense of momentum across multiple industries and investor groups.
There are a few key themes that have directed and influenced Forvis Mazars’ transactional activity in CEE:

• PE funds, namely local ones remain an driving force that is strengthening and shaping the market M&A trends
• EU funding (such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility) poured into energy transition, infrastructure and digitalisation
• Easing inflation and interest rates, with the macroeconomic environment moving in a direction that brought welcome stability
• Relatively strong M&A activity and/or market consolidation in selected sectors, including: manufacturing, energy & renewables, telecommunications, technology, healthcare & pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and defense
• Strong inbound interest involving corporate buyers and PE funds from Western Europe and the US, alongside an increased number of CEE outbound deals (especially to Germany and the USA)
• Industrial nearshoring, a continued wave that shaped the regional investment decisions
• Succession planning for businesses that are close to start a new journey under new ownership

Despite some potential challenges related to geopolitical uncertainties (the war in Ukraine, existing global trade tensions), we expect these themes to still influence the CEE deal activity in 2026.
 

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