Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
A surge in machinery M&A
Industrial machinery | M&A
September 28, 2023 – A programmatic M&A strategy could help European machinery companies to stay competitive and attract and retain skilled talent (programmatic M&A is when companies regularly and systematically pursue multiple small or medium-size acquisitions). M&A and divesture activity in the machinery sector recorded a sharp drop in the second half of 2020, but transactions rebounded within a year, with activity in 2021 and 2022 surpassing prepandemic levels. Senior partner Dorothee Herring and colleagues find that M&A activity in the machinery sector correlates with rising margin performance, particularly in Nordic countries and North America.
To read the article, see “European machinery companies: Achieving balance through innovation,” September 6, 2023.
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Visual form
Time-series deal-activity chart built from quarterly categories. It tracks M and A volume over time with separate deal types.
Layout / body structure
The chart runs quarter by quarter from 2018 into 2023 and separates divestitures from mergers or acquisitions through the legend. The reading order is a standard left-to-right time progression.
What is being compared
It compares machinery-sector M and A activity across time, while also distinguishing divestiture from merger-or-acquisition transactions.
Measurement system
The y-axis is number of deals, and the x-axis is organized by quarter across calendar years. Color separates the two transaction types.
Visible structure inside the graphic
The chart is organized as a quarterly sequence with a legend for the transaction mix, allowing the reader to see both the level of total activity and the contribution of each deal type. The long time run makes the 2020 drop and later rebound easy to spot.
Main takeaway from the visual
The sector took a sharp hit in 2020 and then rebounded strongly enough to move above prepandemic levels. The chart is built around that trough-to-recovery story rather than around small quarter-to-quarter noise.
Key standout values or extremes
The most important extreme is the clear low point in the second half of 2020 followed by higher activity in 2021 and 2022. The title itself states the headline: machinery M and A surpassed prepandemic levels after the downturn.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.