Following the recent upward trend in privatizations, there has been a surge in the academic literature on M&A deal-making where State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are targeted by private firms (privatizations). However, the determinants of the privatization process design remain under-researched as little is still known about whether strategic or financial buyers are more interested in acquiring SOEs. Our study fills this gap making two contributions to the literature. First, it investigates the determinants of the sales method’s choice made by a country’s government when selling a SOE. Second, it enlightens the factors driving a strategic or a financial buyer to acquire a SOE. Our work is the first to address the above two issues, namely the sales method adopted by the government and the typology of the acquirer, in the context of M&A transactions involving SOEs. Based on 401 private-public deals completed globally in the 2013-2021 period (within or outside of privatization programs) in which the acquisition involves a company or a stake in a company from a Government seller by a non-Government acquirer, we find that private acquirers are more likely to bid in public auctions; cash is the preferred method of payment of the purchase price in auctions of SOEs; privatizations of SOEs are most likely arranged via auctions rather than direct negotiations; strategic buyers are more likely to participate in auctions of SOEs within privatization programs, while outside such programs financial buyers are more likely to bid. Implications for selling governments, policy-makers and researchers are drawn.