PARIS (Reuters) – Public offers for company buyouts in France have rebounded since the start of the year despite a still uncertain environment, according to a study by Herbert Smith Freehills.

Between January and August, 19 operations were opened compared to a total of 23 offers for the whole of 2023. The IT and industrial segments alone represent more than half of these offers, five operations having been recorded in each of these sectors over the period.

“Public M&A activity in 2023 was affected by strong economic and geopolitical uncertainties,” explain the authors of the study. “While these uncertainties persist in 2024, the first part of the year was marked by relatively intense activity in France, reflecting a notable upsurge in mergers and acquisitions of listed companies.”

The dissolution of the National Assembly in June added to the uncertainty, but did not dampen market activity.

In June, six offers were opened and five in July, notes Laurence Vincent, corporate M&A associate at Herbert Smith Freehills Paris.

Easing monetary policies on both sides of the Atlantic could also help support market activity, she adds.

The first part of the year was also marked by a doubling of the number of delisting operations, carried out “in order to focus on long-term strategies far from market pressures”, according to the study.

Six buyback operations with a view to removing a group from the Stock Exchange (known as “public to private”) were thus carried out from January to August, compared to three over the same period last year.

Another notable trend is that more and more companies are resorting to foreign listings, which make it possible to diversify sources of financing.

(Written by Corentin Chappron, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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