EU M&A in Q3 2026: Five Deals That Defined the Quarter
The largest EU transactions of the third quarter were not decided by price alone. Two were share-for-share combinations, two were launched by buyers from outside the Union, and four of the five will not close before 2027. The quarter's real story is structure, sequencing and regulatory patience.
European dealmaking entered the third quarter on the back of a record first half. EMEA recorded approximately €783 billion of announced deal value in H1 2026, a 51.8% increase year-on-year, even as deal count fell by around 10%. By late July, 2026 was already the strongest year for European M&A since 2018.
This review is confined to transactions involving EU-based targets announced or materially advanced between 1 July and 30 September 2026. The five deals below were selected on value, strategic significance, and what they reveal about how acquisitions into the European Union are now being structured.
1. Monte dei Paschi and Intesa Sanpaolo: a hostile bid meets a counter-offensive
The largest EU contest of the quarter is Italian, and it is not yet decided. Intesa Sanpaolo launched its unsolicited public purchase and exchange offer for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) on 8 June, one day after Banco BPM had proposed a merger with MPS. Intesa's terms are 1.6 Intesa shares plus €1 in cash per MPS share, valued at approximately €30.6 billion at launch. Intesa would retain the MPS legal entity, Mediobanca and around 625 branches, and sell approximately 635 branches and the MPS brand to Unipol.
The third quarter is when MPS answered. On 21 August, the MPS board approved two all-share offers: €25.3 billion for Banco BPM (1.567 MPS shares per Banco BPM share) and €8.72 billion for Banca Generali (6.958 MPS shares per share). If fully accepted, the combination would create an Italian "third pole" with a market capitalisation of approximately €80 billion, in which existing MPS shareholders would hold 50.1%.
Intesa has not stepped back. On 10 September, 96.96% of votes cast at its extraordinary general meeting approved the capital increase required to fund the offer, which market reports now value at approximately €35.4 billion as Intesa's share price has risen. MPS has stated that it will pursue its own bids even if Intesa succeeds. The MPS acceptance periods are expected to run from the first half of December 2026 to the first half of February 2027, so the outcome will turn on sequencing as much as on price.
2. Uber and Delivery Hero: a creeping stake becomes a control bid
On 16 July, Uber announced an all-cash offer of €41.50 per share for Berlin-based Delivery Hero, implying a total equity value of approximately US$14.8 billion. The bid did not come from nowhere. Uber already held approximately 24.77% of Delivery Hero's voting capital directly and a further 11.74% of economic exposure through equity derivatives. Prosus has irrevocably committed its stake of approximately 17%, taking Uber's total economic interest to roughly 53% before a single public acceptance.
The transaction is paired with a carve-out designed to pre-empt competition concerns. Delivery Hero will sell its businesses in 14 markets, including Poland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Romania and Czechia, to SSW Partners for approximately US$1.6 billion. Uber will take the remaining 50 markets, which generated approximately US$42 billion of gross bookings.
Delivery Hero's management and supervisory boards recommended the offer on 2 September. The offer is financed from Uber's cash and a committed bridge facility of approximately €14 billion, requires a minimum acceptance of 50% plus one share, and is subject to BaFin review and merger control clearances. Closing is expected in the second half of 2027.
3. WDP and Argan: logistics real estate consolidates across borders
On 23 July, Belgium's WDP and France's Argan signed a merger agreement to create one of the three largest logistics REITs in Europe. Argan shareholders will receive three newly issued WDP shares for each Argan share, implying €79.22 per share and a premium of approximately 21% to Argan's closing price that day. Argan shareholders will also receive an exceptional distribution of €11 per share before completion.
The combined group will hold more than €13 billion of gross asset value, approximately 13 million square metres of logistics space across eight European countries, and more than €700 million of annualised rental income. WDP expects a secondary listing in Paris in October or November 2026, with shareholder votes at both companies in November and completion in the first quarter of 2027.
The deal is part of a wider pattern. Two weeks later, Prologis agreed final terms for its £14.3 billion acquisition of the UK's Segro. Logistics owners are buying scale largely with their own shares, and positioning for data-centre and last-mile demand.
4. Cegid and Silae: private equity builds a French software champion
On 9 September, Silver Lake announced the merger of two of its French portfolio companies, Cegid and Silae, into a single group with an enterprise value of more than €10 billion. Cegid brings accounting, finance and ERP software; Silae brings payroll and HR. Silver Lake is the majority shareholder of both and will remain so after the merger.
The combined group will serve approximately 2 million end-customers and more than 15,000 chartered accountancy firms, and will process more than 13 million payslips a month across Europe. Christian Pedersen, formerly of IFS, has been appointed chief executive. Completion is expected in the first half of 2027, subject to consultation with employee representative bodies and regulatory approvals.
The transaction is framed around AI-driven business software, but its logic is portfolio construction. Rather than exit two assets separately, the sponsor is combining them into a larger platform with a clearer path to a future listing or sale. Expect more European sponsors to consider the same route for mid-sized software holdings.
5. Couche-Tard and Żabka: a North American buyer for Poland's convenience-store leader
On 31 July, Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Żabka Group and launched a voluntary tender offer for all of its shares at PLN 32.00 per share. The offer values Żabka at approximately PLN 32.62 billion (approximately US$8.6 billion) and is Couche-Tard's largest acquisition to date. Żabka operates more than 13,000 convenience stores in Poland and Romania; Couche-Tard already runs nearly 400 Circle K stations in Poland.
The deal is, in substance, a private equity exit. CVC Capital Partners, Partners Group and Żabka's management have given irrevocable commitments covering approximately 57% of the shares, which secures control for Couche-Tard once the offer's conditions are met. The offer is made through Circle K Polska and opened on 26 August. Reuters has reported that the subscription period has been extended to 26 October. If Couche-Tard reaches 95% of the votes, it intends to squeeze out the remaining shareholders and delist Żabka from the Warsaw Stock Exchange, only two years after its IPO.
For cross-border practitioners, the more instructive point is the approval stack. Completion, expected by December 2026, requires merger control clearance from the European Commission or Poland's UOKiK, a Romanian foreign direct investment approval, and clearance under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation. A buyer from outside the Union now plans for all three from the outset.
What the five have in common
The five transactions point to three features of the current EU market.
Consideration is shifting towards shares. The MPS bids and the WDP-Argan merger are pure share exchanges, and Intesa's offer is predominantly in stock. Where an acquirer's share price has risen, paper becomes a competitive currency, and it lets boards present combinations as mergers rather than sales. The trade-off is valuation risk during long offer periods: Intesa's offer has moved by several billion euros since June without any change to its terms.
Timetables are measured in regulatory gates, not months. Four of the five deals are not expected to close before 2027. Merger control remains the longest pole, but national foreign direct investment regimes and the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation now sit alongside it, as the Żabka approvals show. Remedies are also being engineered into deals from day one, as Uber's pre-agreed sale of 14 Delivery Hero markets illustrates.
Non-EU capital is buying, and private equity is selling. Two of the five buyers are North American. On the sell side, CVC and Partners Group are exiting Żabka, Prosus is exiting Delivery Hero, and Silver Lake is consolidating two holdings rather than selling either. The EU remains open to outside capital, but the price of entry is a longer, more layered approval process that must be planned before the term sheet, not after it.
Also on the radar
Three further EU transactions from the quarter merit attention. Madison Air agreed in August to acquire German fan and ventilation manufacturer ebm-papst for approximately €5.1 billion. Continental agreed in early July to sell its ContiTech division to Lone Star Funds at a valuation of approximately €4 billion, continuing its break-up. Closer to home, Deutsche Telekom agreed on 17 August to acquire Polish fibre operator Fiberhost and broadband provider Inea from Macquarie Asset Management for approximately €1 billion, turning T-Mobile Polska into a converged mobile and fixed-line operator, subject to Polish competition approval.
This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, investment, or regulatory advice. The analysis reflects publicly available information as in September 2026. Transactions described remain subject to shareholder, regulatory and other conditions and may change. Readers should seek qualified legal, financial, and regulatory advice in the relevant jurisdictions before making any investment, structural, or compliance decisions.
