The M&A market in Romania has registered a 23 percent growth in 2015

A growth of 3.65 million USD was registered in 2015 on the Mergers and Acquisitions market in Romania according to Ernst & Young. This, despite the reduced number of transactions, compared to the previous year. Florin Vasilica, the head of the Assistance in transactions department within Ernst & Young Romania estimates this growth is the result of macroeconomic stability which blasted trust to foreign investors.

The most attractive sectors were IT, energy, and mining, with a number of 13 transactions each. Also, real estate with 12 transactions, healthcare - 11, and services - 11.

The key sector that also made the market growth possible, not only in Romania, but also in Central and South Eastern Europe, was the financial-banking sector. Here, we recall the biggest transaction of the year: 45% of Ion Tiriac’s shares worth 771 million USD for UniCredit Tiriac Bank were purchased by the Italian UniCredit group.

Over 60% of the transactions in 2015 were made by foreign investors - new entries or already present multinationals. The most important ones were from the USA, with a total of 10%, and on the second place, from the UK and Ireland, each with 8%.

The Romanian investors, on the other hand, have only acquired 6% of the foreign targets, one of the smallest percentages in the region.

Some of the most important transactions of the year were also: Regina Maria, private healthcare, purchased for an estimated (but non-public) 148 million USD by Mid-Europa Partners, and Lafarge and Holcim purchased by Irish CRH for 7.1 billion USD, of which 439 million USD for the Romanian actives.

Another important aspect of this radiogram is the type of the investments:  83% were strategical, with a 18% growth compared to 2014.

The average worth of the transactions less than 100 million USD was a constant 21 million USD.

According to Florin Vasilica and based on the evolution so far in certain sectors, IT, production, energy, services, along with the financial and banking sector will continue to grow.  Also, thanks to certain strategical investments, the international transactions will keep growing in order to keep up with the companies that already consolidated their positions through acquisitions.

The numbers above are based on a percentage of 39 % of the total 123 transactions, the ones that were made public.

By Mihaela Constantin