March 28 (SeeNews) - Romania's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market jumped by 22% in terms of value to an estimated $3.65 billion (3.26 billion euro) in 2015, global consultancy Ernst&Young (E&Y) said on Monday.
The Romanian M&A market was dominated by domestic transactions last year, which accounted for 60% of the total number of deals, E&Y said in its Romania M&A Barometer 2015.
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In 2015, out of a total of 73 inbound transactions, the largest number - seven - originated in the United States, followed by Ireland and the UK, while in 2014 the most active inbound investors were Austrians and Germans.
The largest transaction in Romania last year was the acquisition of UniCredit Tiriac Bank by UniCredit CpA for an estimated $771.4 million, followed by the purchase of building materials producer Lafarge assets by Ireland's CRH for $439 million, and the sale of private healthcare network Regina Maria to investment fund Mid Europa Partners for $148 million.
The number of M&A transactions fell to 123 from 182 a year earlier. The most attractive sectors for investors were IT, energy and mining with 13 deals each, real estate with 12 deals and services, pharmaceuticals and healthcare with 11 transactions.
In terms of value, the largest transactions took place in the banking and financial services with an average deal value of $291.4 million, followed by retail and wholesale with $99 million and chemicals with $39.2 million.
Transaction value was disclosed for 48 deals, resulting in a disclosure rate of 39%.
Details about on the ten top M&A deals in Romania in 2015:
Target company |
Buyer company |
Value $mln |
UniCredit Tiriac Bank |
UniCredit SpA |
771* |
Lafarge, Holcim |
CRH |
439* |
Regina Maria |
Mid Europa Partners |
148* |
Pehart Tec |
Abris Capital Partners |
112 |
Auchan Titan shopping centre in Bucharest |
New Europe Property Investments plc |
99 |
North Star Shipping SRL |
Archer Daniels Midland Co |
95 |
Volksbank Romania SA |
Banca Transilvania SA |
89 |
Bucharest West Industrial Park |
CTP Invest spol sro |
66 |
McDonald's Romania SRL |
Premier Capital |
54 |
Nusco Tower SRL |
Kifeni Investments Ltd |
50 |
*Note: as the transaction value was not publicly disclosed, an estimation from specialized sources in the market was used
($ = 0.8949 euro)