
Publication
Navigating regulatory challenges in data centres
Businesses investing in, financing or operating data centres face a complex matrix of laws and regulatory requirements.
Australia | Publication | April 2025
Norton Rose Fulbright’s 2025 edition of the Australian Public M&A Deal Trends Report reveals a market adapting with confidence, despite persistent global and domestic headwinds. While Australia’s capital markets continue to feel the pressure of structural shifts toward private transactions, public M&A remains active — supported by strong governance, well-established deal norms and a strategic outlook by bidders.
Download the Australian public M&A deal trends report.
After a surge in Q1 2024, public M&A activity maintained a stable pace, closing the year with 43 deals — equal to 2023. Encouragingly, deal flow in the first two months of 2025 has tracked closely with 2021, the strongest year for M&A volume in the past five years.
With monetary policy easing and macroeconomic sentiment beginning to improve, dealmakers may be emboldened to proceed with debt-funded acquisitions in FY26.
A striking 78 per cent of all deals reviewed in 2024 were negotiated transactions, underpinned by robust implementation agreements. These deals saw an 85 per cent success rate and delivered average control premiums of nearly 60 per cent over one-month VWAP — significantly outperforming hostile or unnegotiated offers.
The enduring strength of deal protection mechanisms (including break fees, no-talk/no-shop clauses and matching rights) continues to support deal certainty and shareholder value, making these structures likely to remain the preferred pathway in FY26.
Foreign bidder participation dropped to 34 per cent of total deals in 2024 (down from 56 per cent in 2023), but still contributed 63% of total deal value — highlighting their critical role in Australia’s public M&A market.
The findings suggest that a weaker Australian dollar, particularly between late 2024 and Q1 2025, may attract renewed foreign interest. Australia’s reputation as a well-regulated, stable jurisdiction for foreign investment remains a key advantage.
With IPO activity in decline and ASX listings shrinking, private equity and institutional investors are increasingly pursuing take-private transactions, particularly in technology and services sectors where capital intensity is lower.
The shifting capital markets dynamic — also highlighted in ASIC’s February 2025 discussion paper — suggests that public-to-private conversions will be a feature of FY26’s deal landscape.
Significant regulatory changes are on the horizon, particularly around merger review and foreign investment:
Dealmakers in FY26 will need to be more proactive in managing regulatory risk, especially in large or cross-border transactions.
Cash offers made up 70 per cent of all deal consideration structures in 2024 — up from the previous year — while scrip offers declined due to valuation and liquidity challenges, particularly for foreign shareholders.
Publication
Businesses investing in, financing or operating data centres face a complex matrix of laws and regulatory requirements.
Publication
On 15 April 2025, Ofgem approved the National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) Target Model Option 4 (TMO4+) package of reforms.
Publication
In mid-March 2025, Cognia Law and Norton Rose Fulbright’s Legal Operations Consulting team co-hosted a second roundtable event that brought together senior leaders, including GCs, COO and head of legal operations, from across the legal industry to discuss how to drive meaningful change within the legal ecosystem.
Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest legal news, information and events . . .
© Norton Rose Fulbright LLP 2025