SOFIA (Bulgaria), March 30 (SeeNews) – The combined value of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) declined by an annual 2.4% to $35.8 million (33 million euro) in 2014, the Bulgarian branch of global consultancy Ernst&Young (EY) said on Monday.
The total number of M&A deals in the region last year went down by 16.9% to 1,304, EY Bulgaria said in a statement, quoting figures from the latest EY Barometer report.
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The most attractive sector in terms of M&A deals in the region last year was IT, which accounted for 16% of the total in terms of value. As many as 206 deals involving IT companies were concluded last year.
It was followed by manufacturing with 155 deals and services with 120 deals.
The biggest deal was the acquisition of Romanian video advertising company LiveRail by Facebook for an estimated $500 million, followed by the acquisition of Bulgarian software developer Telerik by Progress Software Corporation for $262.5 million.
In Bulgaria, the number of M&A deals declined significantly to 60 in 2014, EY Bulgaria said, without providing comparative figures.
According to the report, 67% of all M&A deals in CEE last year were conducted by strategic investors, i.e. companies whose business is similar to that of the acquired companies.
Most foreign investors were companies based in the U.S., Germany and Britain. In 69 cases, the buyers were US companies, German investors were involved in 46 acquisition deals and British companies took part in 38 deals as buyers. However, foreign investors were outnumbered by local ones lat year.
The Barometer report covers 11 countries in CEE, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
($=0.9206 euro)