Beyond The Obvious

From slowing volumes to evolving sector trends, the Spanish M&A market has seen several developments shaping dealmaking activity in 2025. As the year progresses, what are the key challenges and opportunities for companies and private equity targeting Spain?
 
Javier Gonzalez, Head of Greenhill Iberia, examines how private equity continues to drive buy-side activity, how consolidation is reshaping industries like telecom and how disciplined valuations are influencing deal structures.
 
Hear expert analysis of Spain’s current M&A landscape and what these trends may mean for interest in Europe and beyond.
 
Discover expert insights and global perspectives from Mizuho | Greenhill, your bank for M&A.

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The performance of the Spanish market

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has been very similar to other

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markets worldwide.

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Having said that, the Spanish market

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has performed better than other European

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markets and that's a result of

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a stronger economy.

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We've been growing ~3% last year,

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~2.5% expected for

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this year versus ~1% for Europe.

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There are several key themes that

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we've seen in M&A, starting with private equity

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and on the buy-side.

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They've been a very important driver

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of volumes on the buy-side

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since many of the private equities

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have recently raised big funds and

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they're looking to deploy that capital.

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And Spain has historically been a

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very friendly market for private equity.

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Another big topic in the Spanish

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market is consolidation.

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Consolidation across different industries and obviously

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TMT is one of those.

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We've seen the market going from

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four players to three players with

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the merger of Orange and MASMOVIL

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and I think that we're going

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to see more of those.

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Valuations have got a lot more disciplined with

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the exception of data centers where

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we're seeing activity remains very, very strong.

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There are a number of platforms

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that have been developed, both domestic

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but also international platforms.

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And there are a number of

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platforms potentially coming to market with

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a lot of interest both from

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financial sponsors and strategics looking to

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kind of position themselves in Europe

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and using Spain as an entry point.

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And finally, in other infrastructure, what

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we're seeing is a re-emergence

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of activity there.

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I think the reason being infrastructure

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funds have been very much focused

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on energy and digital infra assets over

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the last, call it five years.

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And what we’ve seen is that

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they’ve found themselves underweight in other

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asset classes like transportation or social assets.

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So this adds a kind of

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diversifying kind of point to their

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portfolios where we expect to see

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more activity going forward.