NEWSLETTER of February 27, 2026

The following content has been added at finexpert:

Oliver Wyman
EUROPE’S TELECOM INDUSTRY SHOULD PREPARE FOR A BIG M&A SHAKE-UP
Europe’s telecommunications industry must brace itself for transformation as a new era of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is set to begin. Over the next decade, four catalysts will come together to create a compelling environment for strategic M&A to unlock substantial value across the industry. Many markets are maturing and offering limited growth prospects, and consolidation is needed for players to scale in fragmented markets. Calls for national sovereignty in critical communications infrastructure also demand more consolidation, and regulators increasingly favor it. Current and future waves of M&A activity in the European telecom sector will have distinct transaction patterns. Telecom executives need to understand the five primary archetypes and what drives value in each, as well as to prepare a strategic playbook to navigate and capitalize on the next wave of M&A activity. >more

I-Advise
STUDIE ZUR UNTERNEHMENSBEWERTUNG BEI GESELLSCHAFTSRECHTLICHEN BEWERTUNGSANLÄSSEN
The current edition of the practical study shows the valuation practice in connection with corporate restructuring measures under stock corporation law in the years 2010 to 2025. In the 12th edition of the study, we were unable to identify any cases in which, based on current Federal Court of Justice (BGH) case law, the stock market price alone was used to estimate the value of the company without also determining its capitalized earnings value. In none of the cases was the compensation paid at a stock market price below the capitalized earnings value. In 2025, the base interest rate rose to 3.25% at the end of the year. In contrast, the market risk premium after personal taxes used in the valuations fell from July 2025 to a final level of 5.00%, after having been set at 5.75% throughout 2024 and the first half of 2025. >more

Bain & Company
GLOBAL PRIVATE EQUITY REPORT 2026
Private equity finally found some footing in 2025. Deal and exit values surged, a few megadeals stole the headlines, and the champagne almost popped. Almost. The rebound was narrow, and distributions stayed stubbornly low. Fund-raising? For many general partners, that process remained a grind. What we’re experiencing, in other words, is a K‑shaped recovery in a world where low prices, cheap debt, and easy multiple expansion are gone for the foreseeable future. This year’s report asserts that “12 is the new 5,” meaning today’s deals demand faster EBITDA growth. Actually achieving this growth requires sharper value creation and a clearer, data-backed edge. The winning firms will build systems, not slogans. They will invest in talent and AI, and move from full potential diligence to execution on Day 1. >more

European Investment Fund
VC/PE BAROMETER SURVEY Q4 2025
The European equity markets are still characterised by high degrees of uncertainty and volatility. The EIF aims at increasing transparency in the VC/PE markets by providing regular market insight. In this report, we present the results of a new issue of EIF’s quarterly EIF Barometer Survey, a part of the long-running EIF Equity Survey series. EIF’s barometer surveys offer a comprehensive view of market dynamics and forward-looking expectations, gauging fund managers’ perspectives across key indicators – including fundraising, exits, valuations, new investments, and deal flow. Each edition also features an in-depth focus topic. This quarter, we examine the appetite for crossborder investment and the rationale behind these decisions. >more

CONTROLLED FIRMS, PREFERENCES, AND CARBON EMISSIONS
I.J. Alexander Dyck, Karl V. Lins, Lukas Roth, Mitch Towner, and Hannes F. Wagner
2025
Controlled firms represent the dominant ownership structure globally, yet their environmental impact relative to widely held firms remains unclear. We test this for 3,769 firms from 35 countries using actual carbon emissions data and a clean preference measure built using retrieval-augmented large language models. Overall, controlling owners’ preferences affect emissions but are insufficient to address environmental externalities. Controlled firms with low environmental preferences emit 20% more carbon than widely held firms, while those with high environmental preferences have emissions no different than widely held firms. Controlled firms’ carbon performance is even worse in settings where marginal emissions abatement costs are high. >more
 

CORPORATE OWNERSHIP AND ESG PERFORMANCE
Peter Tufano, Belen Villalonga, and Boya Wang
2025
Using a sample of 3,083 firms from 62 countries over 18 years, we analyze how the structure and identity of firms’ material owners influence their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. We find that firms with founding families or other individual investors as owners underperform, unless family members serve as CEOs, when they outperform all others. Non-family management and government entities also perform significantly better in most analyses. These results are robust to multiple data and methodological stress tests. Our findings show that ownership matters for ESG performance and give us an indication of the preferences of different types of owners regarding ESG.  >more