What sectors and strategies are shaping M&A in Poland and the CEE today? How are current events and innovations impacting dealmaking? Investors, advisors, and corporate leaders recently met in Warsaw for an insightful discussion, moderated by Ewa Zarnotal (Datasite), with Małgorzata Jedrzejczyk (Enterprise Investors), Magdalena Nasiłowska (A&O Shearman), Piotr Chudzik (Trigon), Szymon Smyk (Qemetica, formerly Ciech S.A.), and Łukasz Borkowski (PwC). The event opened with a fireside chat between Markus Schiller (Datasite) and Jacek Poświata (Bain & Co). It’s clear that M&A in the region is entering a new phase, shaped by AI, geopolitics, and the strategic choices of those ready to seize the moment.

AI as an advantage
AI is no longer an option but the new language of dealmaking. Adoption is accelerating exponentially and soon there will be no distinction between companies that use AI and those that do not. Rather, the distinction will lie in how well companies can use it to their advantage.

The most immediate impact for dealmaking is visible in sourcing and screening, where AI enables faster mapping of targets and emerging trends, as well as in due diligence and data rooms, where automation is improving filtering and reporting of both public and proprietary data. Portfolio monitoring and capital allocation are also changing, with AI providing early signals of performance deviations and opportunities for intervention.

The next frontier is post-acquisition: AI-enabled automation of value-creation plans, transition service agreements, and post-merger integration. AI as a “PMO assistant” can track progress in real time, flagging deviations and suggesting plan revisions. It will not replace advisors, but it will expand the ceiling of analysis and significantly accelerate execution.

As Jacek Poświata, Senior Partner and Chairman CEE at Bain & Company, explained:

“According to Bain & Company’s Global M&A Report 2025, 36% of the most active acquirers already use AI in M&A. Private equity is setting the pace, with over 60% of firms using tools for sourcing, screening, or due diligence. We expect that within five years every step of the M&A process could be enabled by generative AI – from generating initial target ideas to drafting letters of intent, conducting due diligence, and populating post-merger integration playbooks. In the very near future – the next 12–24 months - AI tools will do more of the heavy lifting in deals. For example, drafting integration checklists and transition agreements will become routine, reducing tasks that once took weeks to days. By around 2027, most M&A practitioners will be using AI regularly – surveys indicate roughly 80% adoption within three years. At that point, simply using AI won’t set you apart; the differentiator will be how creatively and effectively you use it.

The future of M&A will be about blending machine intelligence with human judgment. AI won’t replace human strategists; it will take tasks, not jobs. By automating the grunt work, like searching, summarizing, first drafts, and data wrangling, and compressing timelines across sourcing, diligence, and integration, it allows human dealmakers to focus on higher-order tasks such as strategy, relationship-building, and negotiations.”

Challenges and opportunities

Defense and dual-use sectors have come to dominate the regulatory and industry agenda. While many believe Europe must accelerate in this area, there is still more noise than completed transactions.

For Poland, the window of opportunity in the defense sector is real, but it requires making up for years of underinvestment and fostering closer collaboration with national security experts, as state strategy and fund strategy increasingly converge. Moreover, the actual pipeline of defense deals remains limited; regulations and public procurement frameworks are expanding, yet differ significantly across jurisdictions, making regulatory readiness a clear differentiator for potential acquisition targets.

As Magdalena Nasiłowska emphasized: “The needs arising from both dynamic geopolitical changes and the high defense budgets announced by successive states show that Europe – and in particular the Central and Eastern European region - requires further sector development through increased production capacity and defense technologies. This sector should therefore be very attractive to many investors; however, due to complex regulations and the dynamic changes of recent months, it requires private equity funds and other investors to carefully prepare their M&A strategies.”

Energy costs are another factor impacting M&A in the region, especially in capital-intensive industries. Europe faces extremely high energy prices; but producers outside Europe are not required to bear the cost of CO₂ emissions. Competing is difficult when, for example, Turkish manufacturers can buy coal from Russia, avoid CO₂ costs, and place their products on the European market. However, not all companies are not standing idle. For instance, Qemetica recently announced an investment in Poland’s largest thermal waste treatment facility. This step will reduce coal consumption by 30%, help decarbonize the group, and, crucially, provide a stable source of cheap energy for its largest plant.

In terms of strategic focus, fundraising in the region remains challenging due to perceived risk, but strong managers and institutional LPs are finding ways through. IPOs are largely the domain of billion-zloty-plus offerings backed by global demand, while smaller listings face a far more difficult path. In some cases, delisting may be a more sensible move for companies seeking faster decision-making and a reduced disclosure burden.

Buy-and-build, once a ‘nice to have’ option for many, has matured into a key competitive advantage. With organic growth slowing, well-executed consolidation strategies can scale businesses, enhance margins, and strengthen exit valuations. Success, however, depends on management teams with a proven track record of integrating acquisitions, not just ambition. Geography is also shifting, as Polish firms expand more confidently into the UK, Benelux, Germany, and the US, leveraging agility and operational quality as differentiators.

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