Start of deals with firms for which bankruptcy is the alternative

The thawing of the M&A field has started being felt by lawyers as well, but involved sums are no longer as high as they were from 2006 through 2008, with some investment targets being put out for sale with the very end of avoiding the start of insolvency procedures that can lead to bankruptcy. "We've been feeling a thawing of trading activity, so that we now have six contracts of real mergers and acquisitions underway. One of these contracts is rather a distressed M&A, with a business for which the alternative is insolvency. It is about a company with a turnover in the range of tens of millions of euros, in the case of which the shareholders have to admit they lost," stated Marian Dinu, country managing partner with DLA Piper law firm. In the past 18 months, since the financial crisis has intensified domestically, the number of deals has been low and the more so in the case of deals with troubled firms. "2010 is due to be full of challenges, but with more opportunities than last year (...)", Dinu also said. The firm's target for this year is to expand its team to 25 lawyers and generate 20% higher revenues than last year. DLA Piper did not disclose the value of revenues registered in Romania last year.