Policy support combined with a market recovery has kept the M&A and restructuring market highly active in 2025, reaching its highest scale since 2022. As a key pathway for resource integration under the theme of high-quality development, exemplified by the "Six M&A Guidelines" issued on September 24, 2024, policy backing continues to fuel market activity. In 2025, sustained capital market recovery and accelerated corporate transformation have further boosted the vibrancy of M&A deals. A-share listed companies acted as acquirers in a total of 1,527 M&A and restructuring cases during the year, involving a scale of 10,158 billion yuan, marking a new high since 2022 and representing an increase of 119 deals and 1,678 billion yuan compared to the previous year.
In terms of pace, corporate M&A and restructuring processes accelerated significantly in the second half of 2025. The quickening recovery of the capital market during this period laid a solid foundation for heightened activity. The number of M&A and restructuring deals in H1 and H2 of 2025 were 665 and 862 respectively, with involved scales reaching 417.4 billion yuan and 598.4 billion yuan.
In 2025, M&A and restructuring cases involving A-share listed companies were predominantly concentrated in industries associated with new quality productive forces, while some traditional sectors contributed large-scale deals. Industries with a high number of transactions included chemicals, electronics, pharmaceuticals, mechanical equipment, power equipment, automobiles, and computers, many of which are representative of new quality productive forces. This trend highlights that strengthening and supplementing industrial chains has become the core theme of the M&A market, driven by the development of new productive forces. Conversely, traditional industries such as coal, utilities, transportation, and non-ferrous metals were the main contributors to large-scale M&A cases.
Compared to 2024, industries showing a significant increase in the number of M&A deals were mainly chemicals, environmental protection, electronics, home appliances, automobiles, and pharmaceuticals. Sectors with a notable rise in deal scale were concentrated in coal, utilities, transportation, electronics, chemicals, and non-ferrous metals.
Compared to 2024, the proportion of M&A and restructuring deals by non-state-owned and non-central enterprises (non-SOEs) remained similar in number but saw a marked increase in value share. From 2024 to 2025, the share of deals by non-SOE listed companies remained relatively stable at 63.7% and 64.5% respectively. However, their share of the total deal value surged from 23.5% to 37.2%, further indicating that the M&A market in 2025 became more penetrated and active at broader levels.
Breaking down by industry, M&A in traditional sectors is predominantly led by state-owned and central enterprises (SOEs), whereas new quality productive forces industries are primarily driven by non-SOEs. In 2025, traditional industries like coal, banking, steel, utilities, transportation, and petroleum & petrochemicals saw M&A activity mainly spearheaded by SOEs. In contrast, sectors such as computers, electronics, machinery, and pharmaceuticals, which are associated with new productive forces, were led by non-SOEs. Therefore, the significant increase in the value share of non-SOEs essentially reflects the further activation of M&A within these new quality productive forces industries.
Regarding listing boards, the proportion of M&A and restructuring deals involving companies on the STAR Market and ChiNext (collectively referred to as the "双创" board) continued to rise. Since 2019, with the accelerated development of new quality productive forces domestically, M&A activity has shown a consistent trend of concentrating towards these innovation-focused boards. In 2025, the share of M&A deals by "双创" board companies reached 35.69%, an increase of 2.81 percentage points from 2024.
In 2025, the proportion of cross-industry M&A deals increased further. By observing the primary and secondary industries of both the acquirer and the target company, deals where both the primary and secondary industries are identical are defined as intra-industry M&A, while those where both levels differ are defined as cross-industry M&A. The share of cross-industry M&A reached 56.31% in 2025, up by 6.2 percentage points compared to 2024.
Analyzing by industry, sectors such as steel, electrical equipment, construction, transportation, pharmaceuticals, and food & beverages showed a relatively high proportion of intra-industry M&A. In contrast, industries like petroleum & petrochemicals, paper, building materials, coal, and consumer durables had a higher share of cross-industry M&A.
However, the majority of cross-industry M&A cases in 2025 pertained to resource integration within industrial chains (including M&A within traditional industry chains and within new quality productive forces chains). Cases of traditional industries acquiring companies in new quality productive forces sectors were not particularly numerous. Specifically:
Traditional industry chain M&A and restructuring: On one hand, intra-industry mergers aim to improve competitive landscapes and create industry leaders, typical examples being in steel, utilities, transportation, and chemicals. On the other hand, cross-industry cases often involve resource integration aimed at enhancing core business advantages, typically targeting high-quality companies upstream or downstream in the chain.
New quality productive forces industry chain M&A and restructuring: This primarily involves advancing intra-industry M&A to integrate resources and strengthen/supply chains. This includes acquiring upstream companies to secure key materials or technologies for autonomy, and integrating downstream to expand channels.
Traditional industries acquiring new quality productive forces: This involves using cross-industry M&A to accelerate transformation, cultivate strategic emerging industries and future industries, and create a second growth engine. However, such cases were not common in 2025.
From an industry perspective, on average, stocks in traditional sectors like petroleum & petrochemicals, utilities, and architectural decoration, as well as in new quality productive forces sectors like TMT, automobiles, and defense, showed more pronounced excess returns following their participation in M&A and restructuring.
Further reviewing typical cases from 2025 where stocks exhibited significant excess returns after M&A announcements, the market tends to price the following three types of M&A activities positively:
Traditional industries transforming towards new quality productive forces: Companies in traditional sectors acquiring firms in new quality productive forces industries to enter high-growth sectors, open up second growth curves, and achieve valuation re-rating. Typical examples include Guan Zhong Ecology, primarily engaged in ecological environment construction, acquiring an AI finance and tax company to transition into AI business; and traditional power company Leshan Electric Power increasing investment in Le Sheng Technology to develop new energy storage projects.
New quality productive forces industries strengthening/supplementing chains: Companies in new quality productive forces sectors pursuing intra-industry M&A to integrate resources upstream or downstream, rapidly acquiring technology, qualifications, and market resources to strengthen their industrial chains. Typical cases include Leadman Biotechnology acquiring tuberculosis screening and diagnostics company Xiansheng Xiangrui to enter the TB prevention and control segment; and cloud computing company Pingo Software acquiring domestic chip manufacturer Jiangyuan Technology to address computational shortcomings and accelerate commercialization.
ST stocks changing control to achieve a turnaround from distress: Achieving value re-rating by providing "shell value."
Risk Warning This is solely a compilation of public information and does not involve research views or investment recommendations.
