Although Romania is a country with 20 million people and one of the most powerful economies in the Central and Eastern Europe, it has only seen three deals of more than EUR1 billion signed so far.
Although 2017 was busy year for the M&A market, no mega-deals were signed, that is no deal worth more than EUR500 million. The latest such move was made in the fall of 2016, when buyout investor Mid Europa Partners bought retailer Profi from private equity firm Enterprise Investors for EUR533 million.
However, 12 of last year’s deals entered the top 100 deals in Romania’s history.
To enter the top 100, a deal now must be worth more than EUR100 million.
The most important three agreements in the ranking came from the banking, telecom and energy sectors and none of them was closed in the past decade, despite the local market being the European champion in terms of consumer spending rise (more than 10% in 2016 and 2017) and the overall economy for several years now. The three are the acquisition of 65% in BCR by Austria’s Erste, of 79% in MobiFon-Connex by Vodafone and of 75% in Rompetrol by KazMunayGas.
However, market players and analysts believe a new such move could come, although few of them say when.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the more than one billion deals are coming! One billion euros that is!” Florin Nitu, managing partner of law firm Popovici, Nitu, Stoica & Asociatii, said not long ago.
The are several businesses in the telecommunications, energy and real estate sector that fit the profile for such a valuation and have reached their peak of their expansion using local/internal means, he added.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)