Romania's M&A market shrinks 20% in 2023 - PwC

The largest transaction of 2023 was the acquisition of Enel Romania by the Greek group PPC, valued at 1.3 billion euro, PwC Romania said in a press release.

A total of 241 transactions valued at 7.7 billion euro were recorded last year, when taking into consideration both completed and non-finalised deals. Many deals signed in 2023 are anticipated to be finalised this year, including Mega Image's acquisition of the Profi network and UniCredit's acquisition of Alpha Bank.

The Romanian M&A market witnessed eight transactions exceeding 100 million euro each last year, indicating sustained investor interest in larger-value deals. Despite a decrease in transaction volume, the average deal value rose to 23 million euro, the highest since 2020. Strategic players accounted for 70% of transactions by number and 80% by value.

"While the number of transactions has decreased, we see that the average value of a transaction is higher than in the previous year. Romania has been reaffirmed for the fourth year in a row as a market where deals worth more than EUR 1 billion take place: CEZ in 2020, the two-stage deal involving Romgaz's acquisition of Neptun Deep in 2021 and 2022, Enel in 2023," said George Ureche, director and M&A leader of PwC Romania.

The first quarter of 2024 indicates that this year could also be a very promising one for Romania's M&A market, as several large deals have already been inked, added Dinu Bumbacea, country managing partner at PwC Romania.

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