January 26 (SeeNews) - Romania's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market jumped by 32% in terms of value to an estimated $6.2 billion (5.2 billion euro) in 2021, global consultancy Ernst&Young (E&Y) said on Wednesday.
The Romanian M&A market was dominated by domestic transactions last year, which accounted for 54% of the total number of deals, E&Y said in its Romania M&A Barometer 2021. The total number of transactions was 178.
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Romania remained an attractive investment destination for foreigners, with inbound deals accounting for 41% of all transactions. Most active foreign investors were from the U.S., Germany, France, and Switzerland, followed by UK, Italy and Poland. Outbound investment activity remains subdued and accounted for only 5% of activity, virtually unchanged from 2020 in terms of deal count.
Technology, real estate, consumer products and retail were the most active sectors in 2021 with 72 deals in aggregate, up 50% from 48 deals in 2020. Technology deal-making almost doubled in 2021, while real estate and consumer products and retail deal-making was up 35% year-on-year.
EY also noted increased levels of M&A activity in power and utilities. mainly driven by renewables and green transition, and agriculture, food processing and products.
The top three transactions for the year included the acquisition of ExxonMobil’s 50% stake in Neptune Deep offshore project by Romgaz for $1.07 billion and the acquisition of the remaining 46% of the Romania-based and London-listed real estate investment company Globalworth by a consortium of Luxembourg based real estate companies for approximately $844 million. The acquisition of the Romanian gambling operator MaxBet by a UK-based private equity firm Novaplina Capital for $296 million was another significant deal.
Although outside the criteria for inclusion in its barometer, EY mentioned the latest fundraising round of UiPath, the Romanian grown but US listed technology player, which raised a further $750 million, giving the company a post money valuation of $35 billion.
"We expect to see the pace of Romanian M&A accelerate even further in 2022 as CEOs continue to seek opportunities to accelerate the transformation of their business and consolidate market positions. However, with competition for good quality assets increasing, seller’s price expectations are rising, and it will be important for CEOs to maintain a rigorous approach to investment appraisal decisions given inflationary headwinds in the form of higher energy, wage, raw material costs, and interest rates, not to mention the ongoing disruption to supply chains caused by the pandemic," EY Romania consulting, strategy and transactions leader Peter Latos said.
The implementation of the 29 billion euro Recovery and Resilience Facility, which is primarily focused on green and digital transition, will also help to fuel M&A activity in the years ahead, Latos added.
EY is a professional services firms with 312,250 employees in more than 700 offices across 150 countries, and revenues of approximately $40 billion in the financial year that ended on June 30.
The company is present in Romania since 1992.
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