M&A market reaches H1 2009 level in two months

The mergers and acquisitions market has reached 470 million euros in the last two months, according to the data centralised by ZF and exceeded the value registered from January through June 2009, after some takeovers in the retail (LIDL - Plus network), pharmaceutical (Advent - CMU, Fresenius - Lokxen) and energy (KazMunaiGaz - Petromidia) sectors were completed. On the other hand, analysts say the M&A market is far from resuming a sustainable upward trend.

"There are signs of a rebound on the market, but it is not very clear whether we may talk about a trend or not. It's like the Stock Exchange, where you cannot make out a trend from low volumes. We have to wait until the autumn," stated Cristian Manole, Capital Partners analyst.

Local consultants say the energy and services sector will the busiest of all in terms of mergers and acquisitions in 2010, while the real estate sector will be slower. This can be seen already by looking at the first two months of 2010, with only two transactions exceeding 50 million euros together registered (NEPI- Iris Shopping Center Pitesti and TRI Investments - a residential complex in Bucharest). The M&A market of the last few years peaked in 2008, when it reached 2.5 billion euros, according to the data supplied by Raiffeisen Investments.