Romanian M&A market, up threefold in Q3 due to several deals over EUR 100 mln

The M&A market in Romania stood at EUR 898 million in Q3 of this year, according to public sources and disclosed transactions analyzed by Deloitte Romania. Twenty-eight deals were announced in Q3, including those with undisclosed value. This stands for two deals a week on average. Compared to the similar period of last year, the value of the transactions has tripled in Q3, while their number grew by 20%. The analysis included transactions with a value announced or estimated between EUR 5 million and EUR 500 million. Transactions below this limit were not considered relevant for the Romanian M&A market and transactions above this limit were “mega-transactions that have a one-off impact that can alter the quarterly analysis,” Deloitte said. “During the first nine months of the year, the M&A market has already reached EUR 2 billion and what is even more remarkable is that the total value of the market was not reached due to any mega-deals but due to six deals between EUR 100 – 500 million. Historically, the last quarter is the most important of the year and given the transactions which are still under negotiation, we expect yet another EUR 1 billion to be put on the market,” Ioana Filipescu, Deloitte Romania M&A Partner, said. The average value of a disclosed transaction was of EUR 56 million, reaffirming the tendency of an increasing value of the M&A transactions. The fact that five deals over EUR 100 million each have been announced in Q3 and four of them came to fruition is a performance which has not been achieved for the past two years, Deloitte said. Revetas Capital acquisition of the Radisson Hotel and its hospitality complex in a competitive process for a price of EUR 177.5 million was the quarter’s largest deal. Electrica’s acquisition of the minority participations held by Fondul Proprietatea in its subsidiaries, a deal worth EUR 165 million, was the second largest of the quarter. The acquisition by Digi Communications of the Hungary-based subsidiary of Invitel was a standout outbound transaction in its EUR 140 million size and considering the scarcity of Romanian companies acquiring abroad, the firm explained. OTP’s acquisition of Banca Romaneasca with an equity value widely mentioned to be around EUR 100 million is the largest bank transaction in the last two years. editor@romania-insider.com