(18 August 2025 – Australia) Australia’s top companies are cooling on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) despite a record breaking run for equity markets according to East & Partners’ new M&A Index in partnership with Capital Brief.
Sharemarkets might be at record highs but the unpredictability of President Donald Trump’s second term is denting confidence inside Australia’s biggest boardrooms as large companies freeze.
The exclusive research shows one in ten large corporates were discouraged to engage due to concerns over Trump-related volatility. Around one in five (21.5 percent) of Australia’s largest corporates are pausing M&A due to Trump related uncertainty while fewer than one in ten are actively hunting acquisition targets.
“M&A activity has been strong in the US, but here, it’s been a pretty sluggish start to the year and that has been largely contingent on a number of mega deals getting over the line” commented East & Partners Global Head of Markets Analysis, Martin Smith.
“That number [less than 10% of companies actively looking at targets] should be double that at this end of the market. But a lack of understanding around which sectors will be affected makes these decisions quite difficult. While the initial volatility around Liberation Day has settled down, it seems that many corporates are still sitting on their hands, and in many instances, finding any excuse not to do something.”
On the financing front, private equity was continuing to trend higher albeit from a low base, while private credit represented about 5% of the funding market according to East & Partners’ latest Private Credit Barometer.
“We can see that private credit does represent a relatively small proportion of overall funding sources, but given its level of growth that’s going to accelerate rapidly” Smith added.
The new M&A Index, to be released every six months, taps into how 93 of Australia’s largest companies by revenue are thinking about transactions in the current environment and interviews their top decision makers including CFOs and corporate treasurers.
