July 13 (SeeNews) - Romania's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market doubled to an estimated 1.28 billion euro ($1.46 billion) in the first six months of 2017, from 615 billion a year ago, global consultancy Deloitte said on Thursday.
In the second quarter only, the value of the M&A market surged to 889 million euro from 293 million euro last year.
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"We have witnessed a very good quarter in Romania's M&A market, in line with expectations, driven by the favourable macroeconomic environment and solid results posted by Romanian companies. We see effervescence in many sectors of activity, mainly in financial services, retail and consumer goods, health and industrial," Deloitte Romania merger and acquisition consultant partner Ioana Filipescu said.
Deloitte expects the country's M&A market to continue to grow at a sustained pace in the coming period.
The largest quarterly deal was the 401 million euro transaction through which Enel acquired a minority stake in Romanian power distributor formerly known as Electrica Muntenia Sud under a decision of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris.
The Italian utility has completed the acquisition of a package of 13.57% shareholding interest in the two companies that now make up Electrica Muntenia Sud - E-Distributie Muntenia and Enel Energie Muntenia.
The appetite for mergers and acquisitions in the energy and utilities sector reached the maximum of the last seven years, Deloitte said.
The second important transaction was the purchase of AFI Park offices buildings by Romanian DIY retailer Dedeman, for an estimated value of 164 million euro.
The study includes transactions announced in the relevant period that have an estimated or announced value of between 5 and 500 million euro.
Romania's M&A market jumped by 23% in terms of value to an estimated $3.5 - $4 billion in 2016, according to Deloitte.
($ =0.8733 euro)