Australian Merger Statistics

Your Local Experts in Merger Analysis

Brattle’s Sydney-based team assists clients in evaluating the competitive effects of mergers and acquisitions by providing rigorous economic advice, advanced data analytics, and cost analysis. We have hands-on experience of all steps of the merger review process, with the ability to use cutting-edge tools to analyse complex datasets.

We provide clear, timely, and practical advice to clients on the best approaches to assess the competitive effects of mergers, tailored to the particular characteristics of the industry involved and the available public and private information and data. We are highly familiar with the approaches of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and other competition authorities, and apply global best practices in merger assessment.

We draw on expertise in economics, data analytics, accounting, surveying and econometrics, and collaborate closely with world-class experts across our international offices. Please contact Luke.Wainscoat@brattle.com for more information.

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Analysis of ACCC’s Merger Statistics

Below is an analysis of mergers notified to the ACCC, including:

how many mergers are being notified;
how long merger reviews are taking;
the industries involved in the mergers being reviewed; and
the outcomes of the merger review process.

This analysis includes data up to the end of March 2026 for:

notified acquisitions – which we term ‘mergers’; and
applications for notification waivers – which we term ‘waivers’.

We welcome feedback and ideas for further analysis. All the data used in the analysis below is sourced from the ACCC’s acquisition registers, available here. We used the data available as at 10 April 2026.

1. How many mergers are being notified?

The ACCC estimated that it would conduct 8.3 waiver reviews and 27.9 phase 1 merger reviews per month (see Consultation Paper). The chart below shows that the ACCC has undertaken more waiver reviews and fewer phase 1 merger reviews than it expected since the beginning of 2026.

Note: we do not include any mergers that have been notified but subsequently the ACCC has said the notification was not effective. The number of waivers notified in the most recent month may increase as they can be added to the register a few weeks after they are notified.