October 29 (SeeNews) - The combined value of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in Central and Southeast Europe (CSE) declined by an annual 10.8% to $16.5 million (15.1 million euro) in the first half of the year, global consultancy Ernst&Young (EY) said on Thursday.
Serbia experienced the highest growth of (M&A) deals among CSE countries in the first half of 2015, EY said in its M&A Barometer report published on its website. Serbia's M&A market jumped to $700 million in the first half of this year from $30 million in the first six months of 2014.
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The M&A Barometer report covers 11 countries in CSE, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
The most active sectors by deal volume in SEE countries was the IT sector in Bulgaria, manufacturing in Croatia,
energy and mining in Romania, construction in Serbia and communications sector in Slovenia.
By number of transactions, the IT sector was the most active, with 100 deals, accounting for 15% of all transactions in CSE region.
The share of financial investors was the highest in Bulgaria of all countries in the CSE, taking 43% of total investors.
The CSE transaction market in the period under review was dominated by domestic transaction, as 48% of the total number of deals the buyer and the target originated from the same country. This represents a three percentage points decrease compared to the same period last year.
The biggest deal was the acquisition of Romania'a UniCredit Tiriac Bank for an estimated $771.4 million, followed by the acquisition of Serbian software developer Danube Foods Group for $657.1 million.
Most foreign investors were companies based in the U.S., Britain and Germany. In 36 cases, the buyers were US companies, British investors were involved in 29 acquisition deals and German companies took part in 26 deals as buyers.
($=0.9151 euro)