The Romanian M&A market neared EUR 2bn in 2018, based on public sources and disclosed deal values. Factoring in the deals whose value was not published, it is estimated that the M&A market was between EUR 3.8bn and EUR4.3bn, slightly below the previous year.

As Deloitte recently published an overview of Romanian M&A market in 2018, we bring you some key takes from it.

The Romanian M&A market neared EUR 2bn in 2018, based on public sources and disclosed deal values. Factoring in the deals whose value was not disclosed, Deloitte estimates that the Romanian M&A market was somewhere between EUR 3.8bn and EUR4.3bn, slightly below the previous year. The reason for this slight decrease in 2018 could be attributed to specific set of circumstances in 2017, namely a record number of deals between EUR 100m and EUR 500m.

In 2018, 14 deals with a disclosed or estimated value of at least EUR 100m were announced. In total, there were 96 deals in 2018. The average value of the disclosed ones was 50 million euros.

Some of the largest deals of 2018 were Vodafone’s acquisition of Liberty Global shares in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania for an undisclosed amount. Next, Advent International’s acquisition of Zentiva Group for EUR 287m.  The sale of Agricost to Al Dahra group follows with a value of EUR 200m, making it the largest deal in Romanian agriculture.

Note that Deloitte expects 100 M&A deals to occur in 2019.