EY: positive fundamentals for Romania's M&A market remain in place

The Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) activity in 2023 will reflect the fundamentals that have underpinned the record levels of transactions in recent years and are largely still in place, according to the latest M&A report published by EY Romania said that it expected. The environment remains still volatile, though, the consultancy firm notes.

"In addition, we believe that the current market context represents a unique opportunity for strategic players with strong balance sheets to strategically reposition themselves in the long term," said Iulia Bratu, Head of Lead Advisory, EY Romania, quoted by Financialintelligence.ro.

EY Romania estimates that the country's M&A market in 2022 rose by 10% YoY to USD 6.6 bln, while the number of deals increased by 26% YoY to 258. The figure includes deals involving stakes of over 15% and excludes regional deals where a breakdown by country is not available for the deal's value.

The most active sectors by transaction volume were technology (19.4% of transactions) and real estate (16.3%), followed by healthcare (11.2%), energy and utilities (8.1%) and diversified industrial products (7.8%).

The three largest deals were those involving Romgaz, which took over ExxonMobil E&P Romania (USD 1.06 bln), Ford Otosan, which took over Ford Romania from Ford group (USD 785 mln), and local group Paval Holding, which took over CA Immo's office buildings portfolio (USD 389 mln).

GlobalLogic, a company of the Hitachi group, acquired Fortech, one of the most important independent digital engineering firms in Romania, in a deal estimated at USD 255 mln. The NPL portfolio of the Bank of Cyprus in Romania was acquired by APS Holdings Corporation for USD 158 mln.

(Photo source: Dreamstime.com)