Celebrating Excellence in M&A: IMAP Awards 2025 Winners Announced
Recognizing excellence in global mid-market M&A advisory, international deal execution, and strategic transactions
IMAP was pleased to announce the winners of the IMAP Awards 2025 during its biannual conference in Dublin in early April, bringing together partners from across the global advisory partnership.
The awards recognized the individuals and teams behind IMAP’s most impactful transactions over the past year. In 2025, the mid-market deal environment was defined by increased complexity, more selective financing conditions, and longer, more disciplined execution processes. Against this backdrop, IMAP advisors demonstrated their ability to deliver successful outcomes through deep sector expertise, strong client positioning, and coordinated execution across markets.
Rather than focusing solely on transaction volume, the IMAP Awards highlight excellence in deal execution, international collaboration, and strategic M&A advisory.
Recognizing Excellence Across Global M&A Advisory
Carner Corporate Finance – IMAP Finland was collectively named Dealmaker of the Year. Widely recognized as the leading independent M&A advisor in Finland, Carner achieved the highest transaction volume in its market in 2025, reflecting a consistent track record of advising on complex mid-cap transactions involving international PE investors and strategic buyers.
Collaboration across geographies remains a defining strength of the IMAP partnership. This was exemplified by the Collaborative IMAP Deal Award, recognizing the joint work of IMAP Germany and Capstone Partners - IMAP USA on the sale of EMS Elektro Metall Schwanenmühle to International Wire Group - an example of coordinated cross-border transaction execution between Europe and North America.
The strength of collaboration across the partnership was further reflected in the breadth of honorable mentions, which included a range of multi-country transactions spanning Industrials, Healthcare, and Services. These mandates - often involving parallel workstreams, multiple IMAP offices, and complex stakeholder coordination - highlight the depth of IMAP’s integrated advisory model and collaborative deal execution capabilities.
In the Strategic Deal category, Invest Corporate Finance - IMAP Portugal was recognized for its advisory role in the LusoLav high-speed rail project - one of the most complex infrastructure transactions of the year. The mandate involved structuring and securing a multi-billion-euro financing package, illustrating IMAP’s capabilities in Infrastructure advisory, project finance, and large-scale strategic transactions.
Transactions Across the Mid-Market Spectrum
In the transactions above USD 500 million category, Trigon – IMAP Poland was recognized for advising on Total Specific Solutions’ investment in Asseco Poland, a landmark transaction in the European Technology sector that highlights IMAP’s role in large-cap mid-market deals, Software sector transactions, and strategic minority investments.
In the transactions above USD 200 million category, IMAP Netherlands was awarded for its role in the combination of SMS Holding, MTS Euro Products, and Dimensio. The transaction reflects strong capabilities in European Industrial consolidation, buy-and-build strategies, and private equity-led transactions.
In the transactions above USD 100 million category, Capstone Partners – IMAP USA was recognized for advising on the sale of Champion Contractors & Services to Platform Partners, demonstrating continued activity in Business Services transactions, sponsor-backed deals, and founder-led exits.
Additional awards across the USD 50 million, USD 20 million, and USD 10 million categories further demonstrated IMAP’s ability to execute across the full mid-market spectrum, spanning a range of sectors and supporting both strategic buyers and financial sponsors.
Recognizing the Spirit of IMAP
The Spirit of IMAP Award was posthumously awarded to Rohit Walia of Alpen Capital – IMAP GCC, recognizing his contribution to fostering collaboration, partnership, and long-term value creation across the IMAP partnership.
A Global Partnership Focused on Mid-Market M&A
The IMAP Awards reflect the strength of a global partnership that continues to deliver results in an increasingly demanding M&A environment. With more than 450 professionals across 50+ countries, IMAP remains focused on providing independent, partner-led M&A advisory services to clients operating in the mid-market segment.
DOWNLOAD THE IMAP AWARDS BROCHURE 2025 BELOW:
Jurgis V. Oniunas
IMAP Chairman
At the start of the year, the outlook for Q1 was highly optimistic, with expectations of slowing inflation, lower interest rates, and improving growth projections. Unfortunately, we live in interesting times. Early in the year, speculation around the disruptive impact of AI on traditional SaaS business models triggered a significant revaluation in parts of the Software sector. More recently, escalation in the Middle East conflict has introduced fresh volatility – pushing oil prices higher, adding upward pressure on inflation, and creating supply-chain uncertainties. While it is too early to tell how these new shocks will eventually affect the global M&A market, we can be sure that our dealmakers around the world are on the ground every day – negotiating, re-evaluating, adjusting positions, and adapting to whatever the environment throws at them to deliver the best outcomes for their clients. They’ve done it for over 50 years, and that’s exactly what they’ll continue to do, no matter the conditions.
