The local M&A market has seen transactions with a total announced value of EUR 809 million in Q3 of this year. This is more than double the EUR 391 million in Q2, Deloitte said.

According to Deloitte estimates, the total value of the market, including the transactions with an undisclosed value, stood at EUR 1.4 – EUR 1.6 billion, some 15% more than in Q3 of 2017.

“The transactions closed in Q3 are mostly those started in the first months of 2018, based on the 2017 data, very good in all areas,” Ioana Filipescu, partner Corporate Finance with Deloitte Romania, said.

There were 27 monitored transactions in Q3. Of these, only a third had an officially announced value or one that could be calculated based on public data. The trend of not announcing the value of transactions continues this year as well, according to Deloitte.

The largest transaction announced in Q3 was Advent International’s acquisition of Zentiva, including Zentiva Romania, with a calculated value of EUR 287 million. The second largest deal was the sale of Agricost to Al Dahra, with a EUR 200 million value. Third in line came the acquisition of 7.5% of UiPath by a consortium of investors led by Sequoia Capital, with a EUR 2.6 billion evaluation and a transaction value of EUR 194 million.

The fourth largest transaction was the acquisition of The Bridge office by the Romanian investors Dragos and Adrian Paval from Forte Partners, with an undisclosed value. Fifth came the sale of Urgent Cargus to Mid Europa, again with an undisclosed value.

“We see a growing interest both from strategic and financial investors, which want to invest sums of over EUR 100 million per transaction. With 12 transactions of over EUR 100 million in the first nine months, the chances are high we will exceed, by the end of the year, the record of the largest transaction set last year,” Filipescu explained.

Deloitte estimates Romania’s M&A market at EUR 1.6-1.8 bln in first half

editor@romania-insider.com