The value of the Romanian mergers and acquisitions market increased by 160% in 2015, surpassing 3 billion Euro, according to a PwC Romania analysis.
The strong growth of the local market reflected the global trend, with global M&A activity beating last year the record value registered in 2007. The most dynamic sectors in terms of M&A activity were energy, pharmaceuticals and FMCG.
“The last two years were very favourable for the M&A activity, taking into account the extremely low levels of interest rates around the world. It is estimated that this year, the developed nations in the G7 group, will register the highest GDP growth rate since 2010, which will no doubt have an impact on the M&A market. As this period of “cheap money”, if we can call it as such, is slowly coming to an end, investors will be looking for higher returns, taking into account more and more the opportunities on the stable emergent markets – such as the east-European countries”, stated Radu Stoicoviciu, Advisory Services and Deals Leader, PwC Romania.
In Romania, most deals were registered in industrial products and real-estate sectors, with and average deal value of 26 million Euro, most of the deals being small and medium sized transactions.
“The optimism in the market is growing, while the economic context is favourable, taking into account the GPD growth forecasts for Romania in 2016. The year also started on a positive note after the announcement of large deals such as the sale of Albalact, Carpatica and McDonald’s Romania, so we expect that the local M&A market to remain on an upward path in 2016, with deals in sectors that were active in 2015 as well, such as banking or real-estate, but also in other industries; we expect for example for a continued consolidation in the healthcare services market, as well as an increase in transactions in agriculture”, stated Anda Rojanschi, Partner, D&B David şi Baias, coordinator of the tax and legal services M&A team.
PwC is the leader of M&A consultancy market in Romania, with a portfolio of completed deals with a total value of over 1.3 billion Euro between 2007 and 2015. During the last year, PwC was involved in several significant deals, providing buy-side or sell-side advice, such as CRH buying Lafarge Romania, MidEuropa buying Regina Maria private healthcare service provider from Advent. Also, PwC was the lead advisor in the sale of several companies of the CME media group in Romania, helped Transavia complete a deal that allowed it to consolidate its position on the market and assisted the North Star Shipping shareholders during the sale of the company to the American giant ADM.
About D&B David şi Baias D&B David si Baias is the affiliated law firm of PwC Romania, having 35 lawyers specialised in providing legal advice to companies and groups of companies.
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