Foreign Dealmakers Flood South Africa as M&A Activity Surges to Record Levels

South Africa is drawing a surge of cross-border dealmaking, and the numbers are hard to ignore. Announced merger and acquisition transactions across Sub-Saharan Africa reached $50 billion in the first half of 2026, more than quadrupling the value recorded in the same period a year earlier, according to LSEG Deals Intelligence.

Bank of America is positioning itself at the center of that activity. The bank’s country executive, Anthony Knox, argues that South Africa’s combination of sophisticated capital markets and operationally strong companies creates a compelling case for foreign dealmakers chasing long-term returns. “Investors remain selective, but they continue to deploy capital where they see strong long-term fundamentals, growth and execution certainty,” Knox said. Market volatility, in his view, shifts the timing of transactions but rarely kills the strategic logic behind them. Quality companies, he noted, keep raising capital and pursuing growth when the underlying business case holds firm.

Bank of America has executed more than $20 billion worth of transactions for Sub-Saharan Africa clients since 2015. Recent mandates illustrate the scale involved. The bank advised on Diageo’s sale of 65 percent of East African Breweries and 54 percent of Uganda Breweries to Tolaram and Asahi, a deal implying an enterprise value of roughly $4.8 billion. It also acted as joint financial adviser to Africa Data Centres on its strategic partnership with Stanlib, and as joint financial adviser and transaction sponsor to Valterra Platinum’s partial demerger and secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange, valued at around $4.8 billion.

What has changed, according to Simbah Mutasa, head of investment banking for South Africa at Bank of America, is the nature of the conversation itself. Technology and innovation are reshaping how African companies compete, but capital structure has moved to the front of the agenda. “The conversation has moved beyond simply raising capital. The focus is now on securing capital with the right tenor, flexibility and risk profile. Companies that align their financing strategy with their long-term ambitions will be better placed to move decisively when opportunities arise,” Mutasa said.

He pointed to a broader shift in how investors evaluate African growth companies, with premium valuations flowing toward firms that can replicate their business models across multiple markets while maintaining strong local operations. “Innovation opens the opportunity, but disciplined expansion and appropriately structured capital will determine who captures it,” he added.

Meanwhile, competition within South Africa’s investment banking sector is intensifying. Standard Bank, Absa, Investec, and Rothschild and Co all operate in the space. Absa has recently moved to sharpen its position, bringing on Saloshni Pillay from Deutsche Bank and Giles Douglas from Rothschild and Co to deepen its corporate advisory capabilities.

With deal volumes accelerating and banks actively building their teams, the question now is whether the pipeline of transactions in the second half of 2026 can sustain the pace set in the opening months of the year.