Energy Deals 2023

The Energy Deals 2023 report includes mergers and acquisitions in 2023 and developments awaiting the sector in 2024. The global deal activity continued its slide that started in 2022. Global energy, utilities and resources sectors reflected this lower velocity in terms of both the number of deals and the time it is taking to agree to a value and execute a deal, are all highlighting the uncertainty in deal pricing caused by inflation, high interest rates, geopolitical unrest and volatility in commodity prices. 

At home, the Turkish energy market displayed a similar lack of recovery and the deal figures failed to return to 2021 levels. In 2023, 29 energy deals generated an estimated total value of USD 1.8 billion, marking a 10% fall from USD 2 billion generated by 31 deals in 2022.

Although only five oil&gas deals were announced, their total value estimated at USD 1.1 billion made this segment the relative winner of 2023, as opposed to previous years. And, not breaking the previous years’ pattern, the majority of the 24 utility deals concerned renewable energy assets and the rest in thermal power generation.

Looking ahead... The efforts by the Turkish energy administration to align its actions with the global best practices to fight the climate crisis are promising. However, the shadow of macroeconomic reforms still hanging and the potential recovery in the global deal space will be the key dynamics to watch out. With a series of updates in the YEKDEM scheme failing to prompt large number of deals so far and shift to IPOs as alternative financing method, new attraction points are urgently needed to keep the deal space alive. Although foreign interest still exists, this should be ideally happening in a seller’s market and better reflect the intrinsic value of the companies with their high-quality assets and workforce.