EY says Romania’s M&A market up 10% y/y in 2022

EY says Romania’s M&A market up 10% y/y in 2022
The largest deal was Romgaz's takeover of ExxonMobil E&P Romania for $1.06bn.
By bne IntelliNews January 25, 2023

EY Romania estimates that the country’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market in 2022 rose by 10% y/y to $6.6bn, while the number of deals rose by 26% y/y to 258.

The figure includes deals involving stakes of over 15% and excludes regional deals where a breakdown by country is not available for the value of the deal.

The most active sectors by transaction volume were technology (19.4% of transactions) and real estate (16.3%), followed by healthcare (11.2%), energy and utilities (8.1%) and diversified industrial products (7.8%).

The M&A activity in 2023 will reflect the fundamentals that have underpinned the record levels of transactions in recent years and are largely still in place, according to the report. The environment remains still volatile, though, the consultancy firm noted. 

“In addition, we believe that the current market context represents a unique opportunity for strategic players with strong balance sheets to strategically reposition themselves in the long term," said Iulia Bratu, head of lead advisory, EY Romania. 

The three largest deals were those involving Romgaz, which took over ExxonMobil E&P Romania ($1.06bn), Ford Otosan, which took over Ford Romania from Ford group ($785mn) and local group Paval Holding, which took over CA Immo’s office buildings portfolio ($389mn).

GlobalLogic, a company of the Hitachi group, acquired Fortech, one of the most important independent digital engineering firms in Romania, in a deal estimated at $255mn The NPL portfolio of the Bank of Cyprus in Romania was acquired by APS Holdings Corporation for $158mn.

E&Y's approach differs from that of Deloitte, which recently reported that Romania’s M&A market hit a record of €6.6bn-7.7bn in 2022, out of which €4.1bn was in deals with disclosed value. 

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