Corporate Finance Salary Guide 2024

“Social and Environmental responsibilities, in particular, need to be a top priority on a company’s agenda as investors seek out companies that are taking ESG seriously.”

2023 saw an increased focus on sustainability, digitalisation and regulatory requirements. From a Corporate Finance perspective, all these elements contribute towards how companies are doing business and how they are being assessed and evaluated by potential investors and acquirers.

Digital transformation to include automation, data analytics and AI continue to dominate all sectors. The future of corporate finance Social and Environmental responsibilities, in particular, need to be a top priority on a company’s agenda as investors seek out companies that are taking ESG seriously will involve a significant push toward digitalisation. Corporate Finance departments are increasingly relying on advanced analytics, machine learning and AI to make better business decisions. With so much emphasis on the due diligence process, advanced data analytics is an essential tool in order to bring investors the commercial, financial and operational data they need in a time efficient and cost-effective way.

From an investors perspective, ESG continues to be front and centre. Social and Environmental responsibilities, in particular, need to be a top priority on a company’s agenda as investors are seeking out companies that are taking their social and environmental responsibilities seriously. M&A activity has been affected by volatility in the market this year. The early part of 2023 saw a fall in the value of M&A activity due to rising interest rates, high inflation and fears of a recession which affected the level of M&A activity. Whilst the year has been turbulent, there is strong evidence of resilience in many sectors including Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals,Technology and Energy/Infrastructure. There is still an appetite amongst lenders to support transactions albeit the level of leverage limits are more conservative.

A career in Corporate Finance continues to be an extremely sought after and popular choice for candidates. It offers variety and an opportunity to be involved in a wide range of activities from raising capital, to restructuring to long term financial modeling and planning.

At the mid-senior level, there continues to be a skills shortage when it comes to candidates with advanced financial modelling, financial due diligence and financial/ investment analysis skills. We have seen Dublin firms increasingly look to other EU countries and overseas locations in an effort to attract more CF and M&A talent to their Irish teams.