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With Europe’s economic growth lagging, the FT polled dozens of banks, law firms and execs on which companies they would merge to create European champions. Like fantasy football for business nerds, here are the fantasy megamergers — from the creative to the crazy — that could transform Europe 👇

𝐃𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 ➕ 𝐎𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 📱 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘴 A German-Franco deal would create a company serving more than 16 markets, allowing for efficiencies and investment in improved technology such as 6G.

𝐀𝐢𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐬 ➕ 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐛 🛡️ 𝘋𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 As Russia’s war with Ukraine continues, the bloc urgently needs to scale up weapons manufacturing and reduce fragmentation within the sector — and maybe finally build a next-gen fighter jet.

𝐈𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐚 ➕ 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐥 🔋 𝘌𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 Larger energy giants could cut costs for European manufacturers, reducing the competitive disadvantage with US and Chinese rivals. The other upside would be more cash to invest in renewables.

𝐃𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤 ➕ 𝐁𝐍𝐏 🪙 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 Germany’s biggest bank and its French rival could create a pan-European giant with corporate and investment banking businesses and European retail networks.

𝐀𝐒𝐌𝐋 ➕ 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥 💻 𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 ASML is Europe’s most valuable company and a crucial supplier to the global semiconductor industry. A merger with French AI start-up Mistral could create a true European AI competitor to US Big Tech and Chinese upstarts.

𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐟𝐢 ➕ 𝐁𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 💊 𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘴 In a sector dominated by the US, this merger could dramatically strengthen drug pipelines and create opportunities for new treatments.

𝐒𝐢𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐬 ➕ 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 🔧 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 A merged company could have the scale and product diversity to compete with US rivals on electrification, automation, digitalisation and powering data centres.

Nope We need stronger anti trust regulations