Q2 2026 | Market Insights from our M&A Sector Heads
We are pleased to present MCF’s latest Vertical Heads Insight Newsletter, offering perspectives from our sector leaders across Business Services, Consumer, Industrials, and Technology. Drawing on recent market activity and expert observations, this edition provides an overview of how Q2 2026 has unfolded.
Activity and sentiment varied across sectors this quarter, with buyer behaviour shaped by shifting criteria, accelerating cross-border flows and a sharper focus on quality and strategic positioning. Investors continued to prioritise businesses with clear competitive advantages and resilient fundamentals.
We continue to see solid deal activity across our sectors and maintain a healthy pipeline heading into the second half of 2026.
BUSINESS SERVICES
The second quarter saw a continuation of what we observed in Q1, with investors still working to understand AI’s development and its impact on specific sub-segments and companies. Transaction volumes were somewhat surprisingly resilient to macroeconomic turmoil, and Q2 showed healthy deal volumes all things considered.
Recurring revenue, asset-light business models and a high degree of outsourcing remain key attributes investors seek. Increasingly important, however, is a company’s ability to use AI as a means of increasing internal productivity rather than being replaced by it. This has driven something of a shift back toward robust, more classical business models where owning the customer relationship is key to a premium valuation, especially within professional services.
Cybersecurity also remains one of the top sub-segments of interest globally, as well as a core vertical for MCF, most recently demonstrated by Truesec’s acquisition of Subset.
Get in touch with our Head of Business Services: Nils Petter Palmefors
CONSUMER
The consumer M&A market grew increasingly polarised, selective and strategy-led in Q2 2026. Overall transaction volumes remained subdued, but buyers concentrated capital on a smaller number of high-conviction transactions, with megadeals now accounting for 47% of total deal value, up from 39% in 2025 and just 23% in 2024. The „conviction over volume“ dynamic evident at the start of the year has become a more clearly K-shaped market, with strong competition for „must-have“ assets and limited interest in businesses lacking clear strategic differentiation.
Buyers demonstrated greater discipline in underwriting acquisitions, with strategic rationale, operational quality and synergy potential increasingly outweighing pure revenue growth. Category leadership, pricing power, resilient gross margins and supply-chain control are now the key criteria for premium valuations, particularly in food & beverage (notably functional nutrition, supplements and private label), beauty, and premium branded consumer products. Portfolio optimisation has also emerged as a defining corporate strategy, with large consumer companies divesting non-core brands while acquiring category leaders and capabilities that strengthen their long-term competitive positioning.
As a testament to our expertise in this challenging environment, we were pleased to act as debt advisor to Silver Investment Partners-backed Educational Travel Group on its acquisition of CTS Reisen, a leading specialist provider of school trips and educational travel. Overall, capital remains abundant but increasingly concentrated on differentiated, strategically important assets capable of delivering resilient growth.
Get in touch with our Head of Consumer: Andreas Kulcsar
INDUSTRIALS
Having started 2026 with a strong Industrials pipeline, we have closed a number of deals so far this year and continue to be hands-on across client assignments. One example being the sale of Montanhydraulik, a leading hydraulic systems manufacturer, to US-based One Equity Partners. This deal reflects the continued growth we see in transatlantic M&A, with European companies looking to the US, but even more so North American acquirors looking at opportunities in Europe to diversify their footprint and selectively acquire technology or strengthen their market position.
With macro turbulence now being the „new normal,“ many management teams are coping surprisingly well with the challenging environment, delivering trading performance on or above budget, which is bringing competitive momentum back to processes.
We remain positive on the outlook for the remainder of 2026 and expect M&A activity to concentrate on industrial technology companies with differentiated market positions and clear growth potential.
Get in touch with our Head of Industrials: Sven Harmsen
TECHNOLOGY
Two themes are dominating our deal flow right now. The first is that the „3 Rs“ are top of mind in the software and tech-enabled space: recurring revenue, retention, and regulatory fit remain the preferred target profile in this market. Buyer appetite has clearly shifted away from simple workflow tools toward complex enterprise software with real barriers to entry, such as embedded payments, regulatory moats, and sticky enterprise contracts.
The second is that sportstech is having a moment. AI, automation, and data analytics are fundamentally reshaping how sports content is produced, distributed, and monetised. Unlike many categories, sports carries something rare: loyal, emotionally engaged audiences that hold up even in a downturn. A good example is our recent transaction with Sportway Media Group on their EUR 20m growth financing, led by Gamma Waves Partners.
Get in touch with our Head of Technology: Rita Lei
