October 8 (SeeNews) - The value of Romania's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market grew in the third quarter of the year, reaching 809 million euro ($928 million), up from 391 million euro in the second quarter, global consultancy Deloitte said on Monday.
However, adding the transactions with a still undisclosed value, the M&A market could reach 1.4 - 1.6 billion euro in the third quarter of 2018, Deloitte said in a press release.
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"We are witnessing effervescence on the transaction market, both locally and internationally, which has an impact on Romanian subsidiaries. Transactions in the third quarter are mainly those started in the first months of 2018 on the basis of 2017 figures that were very good in all areas," Deloitte Romania M&A corporate finance partner, Ioana Filipescu, said.
A total of 27 transactions were announced in the third quarter of this year, including those whose value was not officially disclosed. In the like period of 2017, 28 transactions had been announced. Deloitte's analysis did not take into account transactions worth less than 5 million euro each.
"M&A activity remains intense. We see a growing interest from both strategic and financial investors who want to invest more than 100 million euro per transaction. With 12 transactions of over 100 million euro in the first nine months, there are chances that by the end of the year we will exceed the record transactions made last year," Ioana Filipescu added.
The largest transactions announced in the third quarter of 2018 were the takeover of the Zentiva group, including Zentiva Romania, by Advent International for 287 million euro.
Next, Deloitte mentioned the sale of Agricost to the Al Dahra Group, the largest agricultural transaction in Romania for 200 million euro, the acquisition of a 7.5% stake in UiPath by a consortium of investors headed by Sequoia Capital for 194 million euro, and Pavle's purchase of The Bridge from Forte Partners project for an undisclosed price.
Finally, Deloitte mentioned the sale by investment firm Abris of Urgent Cargus courier company to Mid Europa investment fund, the largest transaction in the field so far, with a still undisclosed value.
Romania's M&A market grew by 15% in terms of value to an estimated 4-4.6 billion euro in 2017, according to Deloitte.
($ = 0.871 euro)