Polish corporations eye German and US belongings as economic system booms | EUROtoday

It was with apparent delight that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk took to social media on February 6.

Sharing an image of an article within the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung titled “The Poles Are Coming”, he wrote: “See how this phrase has changed over the past 30 years. The German press reports that our companies are increasingly taking over established Western brands, not the other way around. Poland is coming to its senses.”

The article he referenced was about an apparently rising development: Polish firms buying and shopping for stakes in Western firms, together with many in Germany.

According to information compiled by Bloomberg, firms from Poland introduced 22 acquisitions in Western Europe final yr, probably the most on document. Germany has been a selected goal, accounting for 9 offers.

Dominik Kopiński, senior advisor on the Polish Economic Institute and professor of economics on the University of Wroclaw, stated it’s exhausting to not conclude that such headlines expressed a “watershed moment” in Polish-German financial relations.

“Twenty years ago, when Poland was a new entrant to the EU, such a scenario would have been hard to fathom,” he instructed DW. He stated the brand new technology of Polish enterprise leaders was not involved by outdated German stereotypes concerning the Polish economic system.

“They do not feel intimidated or constrained by any lingering sense of inferiority. They take opportunities when they see them and, more importantly, they are trailblazing for other companies, setting an example,” he stated.

“If this continues, what we may be witnessing is not simply a series of transactions, but more a generational shift in how Polish firms see their place in Europe,” Kopiński added.

‘At a sure level, it is troublesome to develop organically’

One of the Polish firms which have been busy with acquisitions is the Spyrosoft Group, a mid-sized Wrocław-based IT companies agency.

It acquired the belongings and enterprise operations of the Berlin-based embeddeers GmbH, a improvement companies supplier specializing within the automotive sector. Spyrosoft can be within the closing phases of buying one other German firm.

Meanwhile, in November 2025, it purchased the US agency Carimus, a digital companies company headquartered in North Carolina.

“At a certain point, it’s very difficult for companies to grow organically, so they have to acquire,” Kevin Dabrowski, Spyrosoft’s senior advertising companion, instructed DW.

“We have about 2,000 employees, so we’re not massive yet, but these acquisitions help us grow at a pace that satisfies us.”

He stated that one other a part of the technique is to amass in already-developed native markets, slightly than to begin there from scratch.

“It helps us to grow and expand and also to find interesting clients and obviously, destinations,” he stated. “Being present locally has shown us that it helps to do business in places like Germany, the UK or the US. We think that it’s very important to be present there physically as well.”

Poland’s financial success story

Dominik Kopiński stated whereas it is a bit too early to say if the acquisitions are a part of a transparent development, such a improvement is overdue.

“More Polish firms venturing abroad, looking for acquisitions and planting themselves more firmly in the European market ecosystem, is something we should already be witnessing,” he stated.

The context, he stated, is Poland’s fast financial progress and continued financial convergence with Western Europe. In 2025, Poland’s actual GDP rose by 3.6% year-on-year, round 2% greater than the EU.

Since it joined the European Union in 2004, Poland’s common annual GDP progress has been virtually 4%, a fee that has accelerated over the previous decade. Its inventory market can be surging.

Key to Poland’s success story, based on Kopiński, is its sturdy home market. “This is a big, fast-growing market, the sixth-largest economy in the EU, and for many Polish companies it brings food to the table,” he stated.

“Most of them do not have an inherent appetite to seek economies of scale abroad when they can still find them locally. It takes a more adventurous mindset and lower risk aversion to venture abroad.”

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Kevin Dabrowski stated it is also essential to think about the acquisitions within the context of a key shifting dynamic inside the Polish economic system, which is not a spot the place international firms search cheaper IT companies.

“We were viewed as that country, but right now, we’re not really that market anymore because this perspective is switching to India,” he stated. “That’s where you can get cost-effective IT services, and Poland is not that place anymore.”

FDI out of Poland

It stays to be seen if and when Poland will develop into an economic system that invests extra in different economies than different economies put money into it over the long run.

Foreign direct funding (FDI) into Poland fell in 2024, because it did in different European nations. According to Katarzyna Rzentarzewska, chief macro analyst for Central and Eastern Europe at Erste Group, among the causes for the decline in capital inflows into Poland have been rising labor prices, excessive vitality costs, and excessive debt servicing prices on account of rates of interest.

Dominik Kopiński notes that Poland has lengthy been the regional chief for attracting FDI, receiving round $400 billion in FDI since 1989. However, he thinks the current acquisitions could level to a long-anticipated turning level.

“If you have a look at the trajectories of extra mature economies, there’s normally a tipping level at which outward FDI begins accelerating.

“It eventually catches up with — and sometimes even exceeds — the stock of inward FDI. We have been waiting rather impatiently for this take-off. It may well be that this chapter is now opening before our eyes.”

Edited by: Andreas Becker