The mergers and acquisitions market rose by 23% to $3.6 billion, while the number of deals dropped by about one third compared with 2014, which means fewer yet higher value deals, ZF has calculated from EY data.
“The ebullience of 2014 continued in 2015. The macroeconomic stability brought back a positive sentiment about business prospects and gave investors confidence to implement development strategies,” says Florin Vasilica, the head of transaction advisory services with EY Romania.
The outlook is positive so the M&A market could increase again in 2016, he added. Romania, market actors say, has the potential of becoming the star of the M&A market, attracting more and more strategic investors looking at the Central and Eastern Europe.
“Given the macroeconomic forecasts, as well as the performance of certain sectors or investment portfolios so far, we expect cross-border deals to increase, as a result of the strategic solutions chosen by certain actors of the M&A active sectors, to keep up with competitors, which have already consolidated their positions through acquisitions.”
Foreign investors accounted for most of the 2015 deals (over 60%) and they were either companies entering the market or multinationals consolidating their position in this country, according to EY data. Most investors came from US, Ireland, and UK.
Romanian investors were hardly visible on international markets due to the lack of capital. Moreover, either international giants or investment funds were behind the ten biggest deals of 2015, while many of the sellers were entrepreneurs.
The ten biggest deals of 2015 amounted to $1.9 billion, or 53% of the value of the 123 deals closed last year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)