KPMG says 2026 will be the year of the carve-out

KPMG International’s 2026 Global M&A Outlook Survey, published March 18, puts a name on the next phase of deal work: “The year of the carve-out.” For KPMG employees, that means the firm is signaling more demand for separation planning, tax structuring, valuation, financial carve-out reporting and transformation work, not just plain-vanilla acquisition support.

The survey says global M&A momentum is returning even as the market stays complex, a mix that tends to favor transactions that split businesses apart as much as it rewards simple buyouts. KPMG’s outlook materials identify portfolio simplification as one of the key drivers behind that environment, which is a familiar setup for carve-outs when corporate owners want to release capital, simplify holdings or refocus on core businesses. That pushes KPMG teams into work at the seam between strategy and execution, where advisers have to deal with transition services, IT disentanglement, operating-model design and the human side of separation.

The numbers show why deal teams should be preparing now. KPMG’s survey drew on 700 private equity and corporate dealmakers across 20 countries and jurisdictions. It found that 37% of private equity dealmakers expect to do more than five deals in 2026, compared with 20% of corporates. Separate KPMG findings say 71% of private equity firms are open to or actively pursuing portfolio separations. That mix points to a market where clients will need advisers who can connect tax, accounting, cyber, regulatory and operational issues before value starts leaking out of a transaction.

For auditors and accounting specialists inside KPMG, the practical pressure point is historical financial information and defensible deal accounting. For consultants, it is the hard work of separating systems, data and talent while keeping day-one operations running. Carve-outs can look attractive on a slide deck; they become expensive fast if stranded costs, transition services or separation timelines are mishandled. Teams that can speak clearly about separation cost, stranded cost and Day 1 readiness will have the strongest client conversations.

KPMG has already started framing that execution challenge in related guidance such as “Winning the carve-out relay: From team selection to the finish line.” The message for staff is blunt: the work is moving toward multidisciplinary carve-out assignments, and the teams that can move fastest across deal advisory, tax and transformation are likely to be the ones clients call first.