Expert Spotlight: What’s next for M&A in Benelux?

At Datasite’s recent Dealmakers Dialogues event in Amsterdam, Sybren de Beurs, Daan Freriks, and Marco Gulpers joined Diederik de Greef examined the outlook for Benelux M&A and the forces likely to shape activity in 2027.

The market remains uneven, but signs of momentum are becoming clearer. Larger transactions are returning, pipelines are strengthening, and capital is moving toward defense, technology, energy, and infrastructure. At the same time, new pressures are emerging, from private equity firms’ need to return capital to the challenge of assessing value as AI reshapes business models.

A market regaining momentum

The recovery is likely to be gradual rather than broad-based, with stronger activity concentrated in selected sectors and deal types.

Larger transactions have shown signs of returning since the summer, alongside an increase in RFPs and potential mandates for the year ahead. Private equity remains active, but pressure to generate liquidity and return capital could become an increasingly important source of deal supply.

Event polling reflected that pressure, with private equity exit pressure emerging as the leading factor expected to bring assets to market. Private equity-led transactions were also seen as a particularly strong area for activity, ahead of corporate acquisitions and distressed or special situations.

Sector investment could provide another catalyst for dealmaking. Defense is driving a major European capital expenditure cycle, while the growth of AI is increasing demand for data centers, power, connectivity, and related infrastructure. Event polling also pointed to defense, infrastructure and sovereignty-related spending, alongside AI-driven productivity and value creation, as important catalysts for M&A.

Technology itself presents a more nuanced picture. Software remains attractive, but AI is challenging assumptions about where defensible value lies. As some capabilities become easier to replicate, buyers will need to test more rigorously what gives a business a durable competitive advantage, whether proprietary technology, differentiated data, deep customer relationships, or integration into enterprise systems.

That could create new opportunities for M&A, while raising the bar for investment.

More technology, but not necessarily more insight

Technology is also changing how dealmakers manage a growing pipeline. Document review, materials preparation, and initial analysis can increasingly be completed with less manual work, allowing teams to screen more opportunities and investigate them more quickly.

Datasite’s recent The new deal team: EMEA report, based on a survey of 350 senior dealmakers, found that 52% believe AI is streamlining analysis and due diligence, while 46% say it is enabling faster deal execution.

But speed does not automatically produce better insight. As similar tools become widely available, dealmakers risk a “sea of sameness,” with more information but less differentiation. In a more active but selective Benelux market, competitive advantage will increasingly depend on identifying what matters in that information and applying it to the specifics of an asset, sector, or transaction.

Event polling pointed to a similar conclusion. A clear majority said they would accept an AI recommendation only alongside human analysis, while most of the remaining respondents said AI should inform decisions rather than make recommendations. Only a small minority would rely on AI recommendations based on source verification alone.

Judgment remains the differentiator

The limits of technology become clearer as a transaction progresses. AI can help identify targets, surface risks, and test assumptions, but valuation, negotiation, and getting a deal over the line are rarely determined by data alone.

Seller motivations, regulatory uncertainty, competitive dynamics, and the willingness of both sides to compromise can alter an outcome in ways that are difficult to capture in a model.

The EMEA research reinforces that distinction. Nearly half of respondents, 49%, identify strategic judgment and prioritization among the human attributes most difficult for AI to replicate, while 54% point to negotiation and relationship management. AI is regularly used or fully embedded in due diligence by 49% of respondents, but that figure falls to just 17% at closing.

Yet adoption is becoming difficult to ignore. Seventy-two percent of EMEA dealmakers believe firms that fail to adopt AI will struggle to compete over the next five years. The bigger opportunity is not simply to do the same work faster, but to redirect time toward interpretation, scenario analysis, negotiation, and conversations with clients and counterparties.

That shift was also apparent in the Amsterdam polling, where relationship-building emerged as the capability most expected to grow in importance as AI adoption increases, followed by judgment and decision-making.

AI is changing how dealmakers learn

The shift also has implications for the next generation of M&A professionals. Many tasks traditionally assigned to junior bankers, investors, and lawyers are among those most easily accelerated by AI.

Removing repetitive work, however, does not have to remove the learning experience. Junior professionals may instead take responsibility for broader questions earlier, moving beyond completing individual tasks to forming, testing, and defending a view.

AI fluency will increasingly be expected, as will the ability to challenge AI-generated output. But sector expertise, analytical thinking, storytelling, negotiation, and relationship-building will remain harder to commoditize.

A more selective market calls for better dealmaking

Benelux M&A appears to be entering a more active phase, but not necessarily an easier one. Larger deals are returning, private equity exit pressure could bring more assets to market, and investment in defense, technology, energy, and infrastructure is creating new opportunities. At the same time, rapid technological change is forcing investors to scrutinize more closely where sustainable value lies.

That puts a premium on selectivity. Technology can broaden the opportunity set and accelerate analysis, but determining which assets have a genuine competitive edge, which risks matter most, and what will ultimately bring buyers and sellers together still requires something harder to automate: judgment.

The next chapter for Benelux M&A may therefore be defined not simply by greater activity, but by better dealmaking.

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