Private equity firms remain interested in Romania

Acquisitions made by private equity funds in Romania reached record levels in 2017 on a regional trend but slightly declined last year. The forecast for 2019 is optimistic, given that large private equity firms are planning to enter the local market as a good option for investing in the region, Deloitte analysts believe.

“Such investments will be influenced by the overall economic conditions and local legislative environment,” said Radu Dumitrescu, Partner Transaction Support, Deloitte Romania.

“Generally, the PE firms are interested in medium and large value transactions, involving local or regional market leaders. Although the M&A market in Romania continues to be dominated by strategic players, the acquisitions by private equity have reached record levels in 2016 and 2017. They slightly decreased last year, but we are still optimistic about the outlook for 2019,” said Ioana Filipescu, Corporate Finance Partner, Deloitte Romania.

Romania is the second-largest destination for PE investors in the region, yet far from Poland, which amassed 71% of the region’s record EUR 3.5 billion PE investments in 2017, according to the Central and Eastern Europe Private Equity Statistics 2017 report.

Investors largely ignored political instability in emerging Europe in 2018, as the value of M&A deals in the region soared by 20.1% during the year, according to a report published by law firm CMS in cooperation with information service EMIS.

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