Further highlights include:
- EMEA Sports Nutrition sector has continued to remain particularly active with eight notable deals so far in 2024 as a continued shift in consumer behaviour towards health and fitness drives market growth.
- The global Sports Nutrition sector is a fast-growing market with a CAGR of 9.0% since 2019 and is expected to reach £33.0bn by 2028
- This is mainly due to the rising awareness of a healthy lifestyle and the implementation of regulations by governments such as ‘HFSS’3.
- The sector growth has been reflected in high deal volume, however, equivalent to the wider industry, the quantity of larger transactions has been supressed by macroeconomic headwinds with c. 44.0% of deals in the past three years being under £10.0m.
- The volume of small deals over the past five years highlights the strategic appetite within Sports Nutrition and high average transaction multiples (EV/EBITDA: 14.9×5 and EV/ Revenue: 1.9×5) illustrate that relative valuations within the sector have remained elevated despite recent economic turbulence.
Mark Lynch, Partner at Oghma Partners, said: “Looking forwards, we expect relative valuations to remain healthy and a higher volume of larger deals as economic conditions continue to improve. The prospect of further interest rate cuts will also provide potential buyers notably, private equity with a favourable opportunity to take advantage of this high-growth market. The EMEA Sports Nutrition M&A activity has been mainly driven by European buyers representing 88.5%. Over the past 10 years, trade buyers accounted for 78.0% whereas as financial comprised of 22.0%. In terms of targets’ location, the UK remains the most prominent region with 35.0% of targets followed by the Netherlands and Sweden.”
