Our industrials sector co-head Tom McCarthy recently took a look at the specialty chemicals sector. He notes that deal volumes reached their highest point since the heady days of 2021.

The specialty chemicals market saw 30% more deals completed in the second half of 2023 compared to the first half of the year. The foot came off the brake pedal as deals that had taken longer to finalise in the latter part of 2022 and early part of 2023 completed. While there was an element of the market playing catch-up due to prolonged deals, there were also encouraging signs for M&A in the sector generally: returning customer demand and decreasing input costs fuelled confidence in the short-term with longer-term growth prospects for the sector looking positive.

Read the full report here.