Takeover prices remain fairly stable on the Belgian market despite the crisis

The Vlerick Business School publishes its annual M&A Monitor. This publication gives a good overview of the Belgian M&A market. What are the main conclusions of the M&A Monitor 2021?

              Takeover prices

              Takeover prices for acquisitions < 20 mio € fall by less than 10%. The market segment > 20 mio € even sees a slight increase in 2020. Across all segments, the multiple remains fairly stable at 6.4 times EBITDA.


              Multiples per sector

              In the previous edition of the M&A Monitor, average multiples > 9 were still reported, such as in the Pharma and Chemicals sectors. This is no longer the case.

              The sectors with the largest drops in multiples are:

              - Chemicals(-2,4)

              - Pharma (- 1,4)

              - Telecommunications(-1,4)

              - Entertainment & media (-1,1)

              The sectors with traditionally lower multiples as construction, transport and retail, remained stable.


              In some sectors where sufficient deals were reported, segment figures were also reported for the first time:



              Some more interesting facts
              - On average, the own contribution is 30% for the smaller deals. This can go up to 50% for deals > EUR 100 million. A slight upward trend can be seen here.
              - Earnouts, where part of the acquisition price is only paid if certain targets are achieved in the future, are concluded in 36% of deals. In the previous edition, this was in 31% of cases.
              - A vendor loan, whereby the seller grants a loan to the acquirer, is granted in 43% of the deals, coming from 35%.
              - On average, there are 4 bidders per acquisition.
              - There is an increase in the number of deals that take more than 1 year to complete the acquisition process.
              Future
              Most actors in the Belgian M&A market are positive about the near future.


              Bron : M&A Monitor 2021
              Photo by Artem Kniaz on Unsplash