European M&A deals of the month: August 2026

Europe’s largest August transactions were concentrated around assets that give their owners something difficult to reproduce: banking scale, logistics density, specialist healthcare infrastructure, airline networks, and electrical systems positioned around rising power demand. Capital remained selective, but where buyers found those advantages, they were prepared to commit at considerable scale.

The pattern extends the market seen in July’s European M&A roundup, when large transactions clustered around established networks, recurring revenues, and operating positions built over long periods. During August, several of the biggest deals went further, with buyers seeking outright control of assets whose strategic value rests partly on the difficulty of recreating them.

European M&A reached €262.5 billion across 3,315 announced transactions during the second quarter, while June’s 972 transactions marked the lowest monthly volume in the preceding 12 months. That divergence between deal count and deal value has persisted through the summer, producing a market in which fewer transactions are clearing investment committees, shareholder scrutiny, and regulatory review, but those that do can carry substantial strategic weight.

Competition policy is evolving alongside the consolidation. The European Commission is conducting its broadest review of merger guidance in two decades, including work on how transactions affect investment, innovation, market entry, resilience, and future competition. As more acquisitions are justified through the need for scale, infrastructure investment, or technological capability, those questions are moving closer to the centre of deal planning.

Five transactions defined the month.

MPS uses M&A as takeover defence —

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena launched simultaneous all-share offers for Banco BPM and Banca Generali on 21 August, valuing the two targets at approximately €25.31 billion and €8.72 billion respectively. Together, they put more than €34 billion of Italian financial assets into play while MPS itself remains the subject of a €30.6 billion unsolicited offer from Intesa Sanpaolo.

Rather than defending its independence solely through argument, MPS is proposing to reshape the institution shareholders are being asked to value. If both transactions succeed, the enlarged group would have approximately €466 billion of total assets, €245 billion of customer loans, €315 billion of direct funding, and more than €810 billion of total financial assets.

Banco BPM would add commercial banking scale and a stronger presence in some of Italy’s wealthiest regions, while Banca Generali would broaden the group’s exposure to adviser-led distribution and recurring wealth-management income. Mediobanca, already controlled by MPS, would contribute corporate finance, investment banking, and additional wealth-management capability.

The financial case is substantial, although delivery will be demanding. MPS expects annual run-rate pre-tax synergies of around €2.6 billion, including approximately €800 million associated with the ongoing Mediobanca integration, against one-off integration costs of roughly €2.5 billion between 2027 and 2029.

Shareholder support remains central to both offers. Each transaction requires acceptance representing at least 50% plus one share of the relevant target, alongside the necessary regulatory clearances, while MPS shareholders must approve the proposals. Completion is targeted for mid-February 2027.

Italian banking consolidation has consequently moved beyond conventional expansion. MPS is attempting to use scale, product breadth, and a substantially larger balance sheet to alter the terms of its own takeover battle, creating an unusually direct link between acquisition strategy and corporate independence.

Prologis pays up for European logistics scale —

Prologis reached agreement with SEGRO on 4 August after improving the terms of a pursuit that had run through the summer. The recommended share offer, combined with a partial cash alternative, values SEGRO’s equity at approximately £14 billion, rising to around £14.3 billion if the potential 2026 final dividend is included.

SEGRO had rejected an earlier proposal in June that implied 925 pence per share. The agreed structure values each share at 1,031.7 pence before the potential dividend, while allowing shareholders to elect for part of their consideration in cash. The maximum cash component is approximately £3.51 billion.

Much of SEGRO’s negotiating strength rested in the composition of its estate. Around 65% of the portfolio is weighted towards urban locations, while its data-centre assets include exposure to the Slough Trading Estate, one of Europe’s most established data-centre clusters. Large logistics parks across major European distribution corridors add another layer of long-duration infrastructure value.

The combined business would have a European operating portfolio of approximately 368 million square feet and around £200 billion of assets under management globally. That scale brings land, planning relationships, development capability, customer density, and established operating positions in locations where replacement would demand years of capital expenditure and permitting.

Prologis’s improved offer also gives the transaction a useful counterpoint to the assumption that strategic fit automatically weakens a target’s bargaining position. SEGRO’s board was able to demand more because the assets Prologis wanted were difficult to substitute elsewhere, and the eventual premium reflected both the quality of the portfolio and the scarcity of comparable alternatives.

Curium buys radiopharma depth in the US —

Curium agreed to acquire US-listed Lantheus in a transaction worth up to $8 billion on 3 August. Curium’s group parent is based in Luxembourg, with European headquarters in Paris, while its wider operating footprint spans nuclear-medicine manufacturing and distribution across Europe, North America, and other international markets.

Lantheus shareholders are set to receive $102.50 per share in cash at completion, together with contingent value rights worth up to another $12 per share if specified commercial milestones are achieved through 2030. At the maximum $114.50 consideration, the transaction represents a 38% premium to Lantheus’s unaffected 60-day volume-weighted average price.

That structure divides valuation risk between buyer and seller rather than forcing both sides to agree today on the full future value of products whose commercial performance remains uncertain. Most of the consideration is fixed in cash, while existing shareholders retain exposure to the milestones that would justify the higher valuation.

Operationally, the combination would span isotope production, manufacturing, diagnostic imaging, and targeted radionuclide therapies. Curium brings a broad manufacturing network and theranostics pipeline, while Lantheus adds an established US commercial platform and products across prostate-cancer imaging, neurology, and cardiac diagnostics.

The combined organisation would serve patients in more than 70 countries, but the strategic value lies as much in capability as geography. Manufacturing infrastructure, regulatory approvals, clinical development expertise, intellectual property, and specialist commercial relationships accumulate over long periods, making acquisition a faster route into complementary categories than building equivalent capacity independently.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to Lantheus shareholder approval and regulatory clearances, and will be financed through a combination of debt and equity.

Apollo takes easyJet private —

Apollo moved from a possible offer in July to a recommended acquisition of easyJet on 6 August. The £7.15-per-share cash offer values the airline at approximately £5.7 billion and represents an 81% premium to its closing share price immediately before takeover interest emerged in May.

The transaction gives Apollo control of one of Europe’s largest low-cost airline networks, alongside easyJet Holidays, a valuable slot portfolio, fleet capacity, customer relationships, and a brand built over three decades. Replicating that position would require more than capital: airport capacity is constrained, operating approvals are tightly regulated, and new entrants must absorb significant exposure to fuel, labour, fleet, and geopolitical risk before reaching comparable scale.

Private ownership also changes the period over which investment can be judged. Fleet upgauging, expansion of the holidays business, loyalty development, ancillary revenue growth, and network investment can all require substantial capital before returns are fully visible. Public shareholders are being offered immediate cash at a sizeable premium, while Apollo is taking on the operational risk attached to a longer investment horizon.

European airline ownership rules add another constraint. Qualifying European interests must retain the required ownership and effective control, so the post-transaction structure must satisfy those requirements alongside UK and European aviation approvals. Members of the Haji-Ioannou family intend to retain an interest through the transaction rather than exiting completely.

Completion is expected by the end of the first quarter of 2027, subject to the scheme, shareholder support, and regulatory conditions. The size of the premium will add to scrutiny of valuations in the London market, although Apollo is acquiring more than a discounted listed equity: it is buying slots, operating permissions, network density, customer reach, and an established European aviation platform.

Prysmian expands around the electrical bottleneck —

Italian cable and energy-infrastructure group Prysmian agreed to acquire US electrical-infrastructure manufacturer Atkore for $95 per share in cash on 3 August, implying an enterprise value of approximately $3.8 billion, or €3.3 billion.

Atkore supplies products that sit around electrical cabling rather than duplicating Prysmian’s core range, including conduits, cable-management systems, armouring, framing, pipes, and fittings used across data centres, utilities, industrial construction, renewables, and transport. The company generated approximately $2.85 billion of revenue and $386 million of EBITDA in its 2025 financial year.

Prysmian has already expanded its North American position through General Cable, Encore Wire, and Channell, but Atkore broadens the strategy from cable manufacturing into a wider section of the electrical installation system. On a 2025 pro-forma basis, the combined operation would have generated approximately €22.1 billion of revenue and €2.7 billion of adjusted EBITDA.

Rising demand from data centres and AI infrastructure strengthens the industrial rationale. Those facilities require large additions of power generation, transmission, distribution, protection, cabling, and installation hardware, placing pressure on an electrical supply chain in which capacity, lead times, and product availability can become constraints.

Prysmian expects approximately $150 million of annual run-rate EBITDA synergies within three years, while Atkore brings roughly 30 major manufacturing and distribution centres, most of them in North America. The acquisition therefore gives Prysmian additional manufacturing depth and customer access in adjacent categories without requiring the company to develop each product line and operating footprint internally.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to Atkore shareholder approval and regulatory conditions. Financing will combine debt, including hybrid bonds, and equity as Prysmian seeks to preserve its investment-grade credit profile.

Bottom line —

August’s largest transactions reinforced the concentration already visible across European M&A during 2026. Deal volumes remain restrained, yet companies with capital and strategic conviction are continuing to pursue transactions where ownership can materially improve their competitive position.

That logic takes different forms across the month. MPS is trying to alter its position within an active takeover battle by assembling a substantially larger banking group, while Prologis increased its offer to secure a logistics and data-centre estate that could not easily be recreated. Curium is buying specialist radiopharma capability, Apollo is acquiring a mature European aviation network, and Prysmian is expanding around the electrical infrastructure that supports its existing cable business.

Across those transactions, the targets contribute more than incremental revenue. They bring physical capacity, established distribution, licences, technical expertise, customer relationships, intellectual property, market access, or operating positions whose replacement cost is measured partly in time rather than capital alone.

Consideration structures have become equally varied as boards divide valuation and execution risk more deliberately. MPS is relying on shares, SEGRO investors can retain exposure to the enlarged Prologis while accessing a partial cash alternative, Curium has linked part of Lantheus’s value to future commercial milestones, and Prysmian is combining debt and equity while protecting its credit profile.

Regulatory execution is embedded deeply in many large transactions. Italian banking approvals, European airline ownership rules, competition clearance, healthcare regulation, and an evolving EU merger framework all affect how buyers can structure ownership and how quickly they can close. As acquisition targets move further into strategically important infrastructure, regulated industries, and concentrated markets, financial capacity alone is not enough to determine whether a transaction can be completed.

August leaves European M&A with a market that remains selective, but not cautious in every sense. Buyers are still prepared to commit substantial capital when the asset offers a defensible operating position, and when ownership provides something that would be slower, less certain, or more expensive to achieve through internal investment.