{"id":3173,"date":"2026-02-03T11:14:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/?p=3173"},"modified":"2026-02-03T11:15:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:15:25","slug":"pwc-global-ma-trends-in-industrials-and-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/pwc-global-ma-trends-in-industrials-and-services\/","title":{"rendered":"PwC: Global M&#038;A trends in industrials and services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By\u00a0<strong>Michelle Ritchie<\/strong>, Global Industrials and Services Deals Leader, PwC US<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Digitalisation, the energy transition, and AI infrastructure are reshaping industrials and services M&amp;A. In 2026, dealmaker focus will be on driving sharper portfolio choices and targeted investments in innovation and automation.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Industrials and services M&amp;A: accelerating into disruption<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>A convergence of structural pressures and long-duration growth themes is shaping M&amp;A activity across the industrials and services (I&amp;S) sectors in 2026. Labour shortages, geopolitical pressure, and persistent supply chain risk are pushing companies to act by acquiring automation, digital, and productivity-enhancing capabilities. At the same time, investment in infrastructure, defence, and energy systems is strengthening end-market demand in select subsectors, supporting targeted dealmaking despite ongoing macroeconomic and trade uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>Portfolio reshaping remains central to M&amp;A strategy. Corporates are divesting legacy or non-core operations and reallocating capital towards higher-growth, technology-enabled, and service-oriented businesses aligned with digitalisation, the energy transition, and the build-out of AI infrastructure. Private equity is expected to remain a major catalyst across subsectors, favouring recurring-revenue models, fragmented markets, and buy-and-build strategies that enable rapid scaling, platform expansion, and operational value creation.<\/p>\n<p>While the I&amp;S sector is aligned around these common drivers, dealmaking in each subsector will be shaped by distinct priorities in 2026:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Aerospace and defence (A&amp;D):<\/strong>\u00a0Rising global defence spending and geopolitical tension will likely see increased M&amp;A activity across rearmament, components, unmanned systems, space, and aftermarket services, with heightened focus on supply chain resilience and secure sourcing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Automotive:<\/strong>\u00a0Dealmaking remains selective amid overcapacity and capital constraints, with OEMs and suppliers favouring strategic alliances, joint ventures, and targeted acquisitions to advance electrification, software, and autonomous-driving technologies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Business services:<\/strong>\u00a0Private equity-led consolidation continues in recurring, tech-enabled services, with activity expanding into legal, staffing and business process outsourcing, compliance, managed IT, cybersecurity, and audit-driven platforms.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Engineering and construction:\u00a0<\/strong>Infrastructure, clean-energy, and data centre investment will support M&amp;A activity in specialty contractors and industrial services, particularly those enabling automation, prefabrication, and higher-value, project-critical capabilities.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Manufacturing:\u00a0<\/strong>Portfolio reshaping, reshoring, and AI infrastructure demand are driving selective large-scale deals and bolt-ons in automation, energy storage, and life-sciences-adjacent niches.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwc.com\/gx\/en\/services\/deals\/trends\/industrials-services.html?WT.mc_id=GMO-SPO-NA-FY26-SPO-GLMAT-T23-IM&amp;A-XLOS-ART-GMOSPO00018-EN-OSLI-T1&amp;utm_campaign=socialmedia&amp;utm_content=5961dae6-118d-4c0a-91bf-37edc105421b&amp;utm_medium=linkedin&amp;utm_source=hootsuite&amp;utm_term=pwc+kenya\" rel=\"\">Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digitalisation, the energy transition, and AI infrastructure are reshaping industrials and services M&#038;A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology-disruption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3176,"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173\/revisions\/3176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.websitetestserver.website\/stealthaxe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}