Corporate acquirers, or trade buyers, dominated high-growth company acquisitions in the South East in Q3 2024, accounting for 91.2% of all deals. This reflects the global trend of corporate acquirers having large cash reserves due to favourable economic conditions recently experienced. Professional investor activity, typically private equity funds, grew slightly in Q3 2024, representing 8.8% of acquisitions, compared to 7.1% in Q3 2023. Similar trends of trade versus private equity buyers have been observed in previous years. Corporate acquirers have traditionally dominated the M&A market, but private equity has been closing the gap over the last decade. However, this trend may have slowed recently due to higher borrowing costs for private equity firms.