Key Takeaways
- • UK mid-market buy-and-build activity collapsed 61% year-on-year in 2025, with the 45 most active serial acquirers completing 114 deals in 2024 compared to significantly lower volumes in 2025, marking a sharp reversal after a five-year peak.
- • Business services dominated 2025 bolt-on activity at 36% of transactions, while financial services and consulting each represented 16%, demonstrating sustained consolidation interest in recurring-revenue sectors despite overall market contraction.
- • Technology, insurance, and education bolt-ons experienced severe declines of 80%, 85%, and 71% respectively, signaling investor pullback from previously resilient verticals and a rotation toward defensive business models.
- • Stevens & Bolton attributes the downturn to macroeconomic and political uncertainty combined with portfolio companies prioritizing integration of earlier acquisitions over expansion, rather than a fundamental strategic retreat from buy-and-build models.
- • Joe Bedford, head of corporate at Stevens & Bolton, cautioned that 2025's contraction should not be construed as a structural shift away from buy-and-build strategies, suggesting potential recovery as market conditions stabilize.
Summary
UK mid-market buy-and-build activity experienced a dramatic 61% contraction in 2025 following record deal volumes in 2024, according to research from Stevens & Bolton. The analysis of the 45 most active serial acquirers in the United Kingdom revealed the scale of the pullback: while 2024 marked the highest deal count in a five-year review period at 114 completed add-on acquisitions, 2025 saw activity decline significantly, reflecting broader market headwinds affecting the private equity and venture capital sectors.
Despite the overall contraction, transaction activity remained heavily concentrated in defensive sectors. Business services maintained its dominance, accounting for 36% of all bolt-on transactions in 2025, while financial services and consulting each captured 16% of total deal volume. This concentration reflects persistent private equity appetite for consolidation opportunities in fragmented, recurring-revenue businesses. However, previously strong performers faced severe headwinds: technology bolt-ons declined 80%, insurance dropped 85%, and education fell 71%—indicating a pronounced rotation away from growth-oriented and cyclical verticals toward more defensive business models.
Stevens & Bolton identified macroeconomic and political uncertainty as primary drivers of the slowdown, alongside what the firm characterized as a "natural pause" following the unusually elevated 2024 activity. The research also highlighted a strategic shift within portfolio companies, which have shifted focus toward integrating and optimizing earlier acquisitions rather than pursuing aggressive expansion through new bolt-ons. This integration-focused stance represents a tactical adjustment in capital deployment rather than a fundamental abandonment of buy-and-build strategies.
Joe Bedford, head of corporate at Stevens & Bolton, emphasized that investors should not interpret the 2025 decline as evidence of structural decline in buy-and-build activity. This messaging suggests that market participants view the contraction as cyclical rather than terminal, with potential for deal activity recovery as macroeconomic conditions stabilize and portfolio companies complete integration phases.
Despite the overall contraction, transaction activity remained heavily concentrated in defensive sectors. Business services maintained its dominance, accounting for 36% of all bolt-on transactions in 2025, while financial services and consulting each captured 16% of total deal volume. This concentration reflects persistent private equity appetite for consolidation opportunities in fragmented, recurring-revenue businesses. However, previously strong performers faced severe headwinds: technology bolt-ons declined 80%, insurance dropped 85%, and education fell 71%—indicating a pronounced rotation away from growth-oriented and cyclical verticals toward more defensive business models.
Stevens & Bolton identified macroeconomic and political uncertainty as primary drivers of the slowdown, alongside what the firm characterized as a "natural pause" following the unusually elevated 2024 activity. The research also highlighted a strategic shift within portfolio companies, which have shifted focus toward integrating and optimizing earlier acquisitions rather than pursuing aggressive expansion through new bolt-ons. This integration-focused stance represents a tactical adjustment in capital deployment rather than a fundamental abandonment of buy-and-build strategies.
Joe Bedford, head of corporate at Stevens & Bolton, emphasized that investors should not interpret the 2025 decline as evidence of structural decline in buy-and-build activity. This messaging suggests that market participants view the contraction as cyclical rather than terminal, with potential for deal activity recovery as macroeconomic conditions stabilize and portfolio companies complete integration phases.
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