The year 2023 started strongly on the Romanian mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market, with the estimated year-on-year value of local business going up to USD 2.5 billion in Q1 2023 as against 1.9 billion US dollars in Q1 2022 on a 53% increase in the value of trades made public, according to an EY Romania press statement, quoted by ActMedia.eu.
The Romanian M&A market reported 57 trades in the first three months of 2023, the same as in Q1 2022.
The largest Q1 2023 trade was the sale of the Romanian operations of the Italian group Enel to Public Power Corporation, the leading electricity company in Greece, for approximately USD 1.4 billion. Another notable transaction was the purchase of local bakery Vel Pitar by Mexico-based Grupo Bimbo for an estimated USD 210 million. In addition, three other transactions of more than USD 100 million were announced in Q1 2023.
Strategic investors continue to be the dominant players, as they got involved with 84% of the transactions. Domestic transactions advanced 94% in Q1 2023 y-o-y, totalling 33 transactions, while foreign players reduced their activity by 42% on the Romanian market to just 21 transactions as against Q1 2022.
The most active investors came from Germany — three trades — followed by those from the USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Israel, two trades each.
The first three most active sectors by volume in Q1 2023 were: consumer products and retail trade (13 transactions), real estate, hospitality and construction (11 transactions) and technology (7 transactions).
EY is one of the world’s leading professional services firms with 365,399 employees in more than 700 offices across 150 countries, and revenues of approx. USD 45.4 billion in the financial year that ended on June 30, 2022.
With a presence in Romania ever since 1992, EY is the leading company on the market of professional services. Its more than 900 employees in Romania and Moldova provide integrated services in assurance, tax, strategy and transactions, and consulting to clients ranging from multinationals to local companies.
EY Romania offices are based in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi and Chisinau. In 2014, it joined the only global competition dedicated to entrepreneurship, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year.
