2026 Global Divestiture Survey
Five moves to reshape long-term value in divestiture strategy
Divestitures are becoming less opportunistic and more strategic. In the first edition of our 2026 Global Divestiture Survey, we're exploring the key insights that underly this shift, and the five steps leading companies can take to embrace it.
Redefining divestiture strategy
Entering 2026, divestitures have become one of the most strategic levers to renew portfolios and redeploy capital. Separations have historically been opportunistic moves. Now, they can increasingly be deliberate mechanisms for reshaping the enterprise.
As investment thresholds rise and external pressure sharpens, leaders are reassessing which of their businesses truly merit incremental capital and which ones dilute focus, margin, or future capacity.
The result is a divestiture environment characterized by strategic intent, execution discipline, and a clearer linkage to long-term transformation agendas.
Five insights will likely define the year ahead and beyond for deal leaders:
1. Divestitures have become strategy-led portfolio moves instead of reactive disposals. Dominant motivations now include capital reallocation and operating model focus.
2. Preparation quality continues to be the largest driver of value. It influences proceeds, time to close, buyer engagement, and cost-to-achieve.
3. Execution gaps remain persistent. This is particularly true with respect to data quality, separation readiness, regulatory planning, and leadership alignment.
4. Organizations underestimate post-close value erosion. Stranded costs, transition service agreement (TSA) complexity, and legal entity and operational redesign challenges contribute to that loss of value.
5. Outperformers treat divestitures as intentionally designed transformation events. They embed separation design, value-story development, and functional readiness well before they go to market.
How the corporate divestiture environment has changed heading into 2026
Divestiture activity is normalizing, following a post-pandemic surge. In 2025, volumes declined but deal values rose,1 as companies shifted from opportunistic sales to strategy-led separations. The defining trend is intentionality: Many organizations are divesting to reshape their portfolios rather than react to external pressures.
- Large-cap deals continue to drive market value. Six transactions, each more than $10 billion in value, raised average deal size in 2024 and 2025 and obscured steadier mid-market activity. Value is increasingly concentrated in fewer, larger separations.2
- During the same period, motivations shifted from external pressures to strategy-led decisions. In 2024, regulatory shifts and competitive pressures dominated. By 2026, organizations are likely to divest primarily to sharpen strategic focus, redeploy capital, and improve operating model efficiency. Opportunistic inbound interest remains high. But now that interest supports portfolio reshaping instead of driving it.
What will make or break value creation in 2026?
Seller performance has improved since 2024, when only one-third met expectations for timing and proceeds. By the end of 2025, nearly half did so. Still, results remain inconsistent: For many sellers, meeting expectations is effectively a coin toss.
Leading sellers expand the value equation:
- They increase optionality through early portfolio analysis.
- They minimize ongoing commitments post-close.
- They reduce value erosion across the life cycle through end-to-end ownership.
Rather than viewing divestitures as starting at market testing, they deliberately design separations early, optimize the entity to be divested and the remaining organization during the deal, and exit TSAs and stranded costs quickly to refocus on growth.
5 steps to drive more strategic divestiture decisions
What strategies influenced value-creation divestitures in the last year—and offer guidance for future deals?
Shape the strategy and optimize the portfolio
Portfolio reviews are less frequent than in 2024, but strategic alternatives such as joint ventures, partnerships, and alliances now anchor separation planning for many organizations. This declining cadence risks creating a reactive posture, in which portfolio decisions are triggered only by performance or strategic issues. This approach contrasts with the “always-on” portfolio mindset that growth transformers demonstrate.
In 2024, nearly two-thirds of respondents evaluated divestiture candidates more than twice per year. By end of 2025, fewer than half do so. Meanwhile, most respondents (71%) now evaluate or pursue strategic alternatives to structure upcoming separations. This is a reflection of the increasing creativity it takes to unlock value from complex portfolios, as well as the market’s shift toward flexible, multistage separation models.
Divestiture portfolio reviews: 2024 vs. 2026
Source: Deloitte 2024/2026 Global Divestiture Survey; 2024 n=500, 2026 n=981
Identify and prepare the right deal
When sellers prepare a divestiture for marketing and diligence, they should account for what motivates buyers. Leading sellers reflect these motivations directly in the preparation and sale process.
The asymmetry persists between what sellers and buyers value. Sellers prioritize price, speed, certainty, and execution reliability. Buyers prioritize strategic fit, synergies, integration feasibility, and long-term value creation. This tension shapes nearly every carve-out. Sellers focus on value at close, while buyers focus on value after close. Both value speed and certainty, but sellers emphasize it more, given their exposure to stranded costs and organizational disruption.
Top factors in proceeding with a divestiture (Weighted rank score)
Source: Deloitte 2026 Global Divestiture Survey; sellers n=979, buyers n=569
Negotiate and sign the best deal
Signing a divestiture deal is a major milestone. It’s a step that translates preparation, diligence, and cost-to-achieve into a binding agreement.
Most abandoned deals collapse before signing. Abandonment rates have improved: In our 2024 survey, 98% of respondents reported at least one abandoned deal. By the end of 2025, only one-third did.
Abandoned deals most often stem from shifts in internal strategy, unmet value expectations, or limited early buyer interest. Buyers walk away most frequently when they do not see value-creation potential. Both buyers and sellers cited regulatory changes and shareholder opposition as additional external risks.
Reasons for abandoned divestitures (Sellers vs. Buyers)
Source: Deloitte 2026 Global Divestiture Survey; sellers n=243, buyers n=177
Deliver the promised returns
Once a divestiture is signed, getting to close and achieving a seamless Day 1 is critical to value delivery.
The biggest hurdles are typically regulatory and legal approvals along with separating the divested business from the remaining organization. TSAs have historically helped accelerate closing,3 but they often introduce complexity later.
Sign-to-close timelines have lengthened by roughly 6% since 2020 and can extend to 10 months or more, with a median of about three months.4 Regulatory scrutiny, particularly for cross-border deals, remains the most common cause of delays, followed by separation-readiness gaps, execution delays, and unexpected complexity.
Announcement to close duration in months (2020—2025)
Source: Deloitte analysis of S&P Capital IQ data as of December 8, 2025; 908 deals (divestitures only) with $100M+ in deal value, with announcement or closed date between January 2020 and December 2025, and a minimum close period of four weeks, excluding outliers or values outside 1.5 × IQR from the quartiles.
Stabilize and transform to realize greater value
For many dealmakers, Day 1 feels like completion. Operationally, however, most businesses are far from fully separated at close.
Sellers and buyers report similar post-close challenges. Dis-synergies and tax or legal complexity are the most persistent. But their pressures differ: Sellers struggle with stranded costs, TSAs, and financial reporting, while buyers focus on talent retention, integration feasibility, acquired exposures, and supply chain redesign. Sellers work to stabilize the remaining organization (RemainCo) while buyers work to unlock value.
Top continuing challenges post-deal close (Weighted rank score)
Deloitte 2026 Global Divestiture Survey; sellers n=962, buyers n=559; top 5 only
What’s next for corporate divestitures?
Divestitures are entering a period of renewed momentum, shaped by shifting macroeconomic conditions and a more strategic posture from corporate boards.
After two years of elevated interest rates and muted deal activity, capital markets have stabilized, and CEOs are returning to portfolio reshaping as a core management lever. Rates remain higher than in the pre-2020 era, but the “next normal” is clearer: Capital is available, financing markets are open, and valuation expectations between buyers and sellers are converging. This environment favors separation activity that is intentional, data-driven, and directly tied to capital allocation priorities.
The landscape ahead is more strategic than cyclical. Carve-outs remain attractive where viable bids and credible stand-alone plans exist. Spin-offs continue to suit businesses or assets whose growth or margin potential is obscured inside diversified groups.
Increasingly, however, organizations are treating divestitures not as isolated exits, but as essential components within a broader sequence of strategic moves. Leaders are combining defensive actions, such as cost excellence, portfolio rebalancing, and select divestments, with offensive plays like tech-enabled transformation, adjacency expansion, and ecosystem alliances. As a result, organizations are shifting from one-off transactions to multi-year separation roadmaps that intentionally rebalance their portfolios and create capacity for future growth.5
Endnotes
1. Iain Macmillan, Joel Schlachtenhaufen, and J. Henning Buchholz, 2024 Global Corporate Divestiture Survey: Amid uncertainty, new muscles for new possibilities, Deloitte, 2024.
2. S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC, S&P Capital IQ, accessed December 9, 2025, data as of December 8, 2025.
3. Macmillan et al., 2024 Global Corporate Divestiture Survey: Amid uncertainty, new muscles for new possibilities.
4. Deloitte analysis of S&P Capital IQ data as of December 8, 2025; 908 deals (divestitures only) with $100M+ in deal value, with Announcement or Closed date between January 2020 and December 2025, and a minimum close period of four weeks, excluding outliers or values outside 1.5 × IQR from the quartiles.
5. Rob Arvai et al., Rebalancing your portfolio to fuel growth, Deloitte Asia Pacific, July 2024.
