Content
- The Argos Index® stabilised at 9.2x EBITDA against a background of low transaction volumes
- The multiples paid by investment funds (9.3x) and strategic buyers (8.9x) converged
- The percentage of high-multiple transactions is stabilising
- The spread between the multiples of listed companies and the transaction multiples paid by strategic buyers narrowed
- Mid-market M&A activity in Europe declined sharply in the first half of 2020
- Germany’s weighting increased among acquisitions of SMEs in the eurozone
Principal conclusions
- The Argos Index® stabilised at 9.2x EBITDA against a background of low transaction volumes.
- The volume of M&A activity declined sharply in the second quarter, by 40% in volume and 60% in value terms compared with the first quarter of 2020 and the second quarter of 2019.
- The multiples paid by investment funds (9.3x) and strategic buyers (8.9x) converged.
- Germany set a new record for market share of mid-cap M&A transactions in the eurozone.
Median EV/EBITDA multiple on a six-month rolling basis
Source: Mid-market Argos Index® / Epsilon Research
All on the Argos Index ®
MANAGING PARTNER
Louis Godron
“The Argos Index® was born out of the desire to create a database for the unlisted market that would be both methodologically robust and rich in high-quality information. Robustness is the index’s salient characteristic.”
MANAGING PARTNER
Frank Hermann
“When the CEO of a company wonders if now is the right time to sell, the Argos Index® supplies essential business cycle information and helps him or her make a decision. The Argos Index® derives its legitimacy from its longevity and independence.”
FOUNDER, EPSILON RESEARCH
Grégoire Buisson
“If the Argos Index® is now a benchmark in Europe, it’s because we use information from our EMAT (Epsilon Multiple Analysis Tool) database that has been proven to be reliable. The index has always been based on this methodology. We work meticulously, transaction by transaction, examining documents, analyzing annual reports, reconstituting transactions and building hypotheses.”