Romanian M&A market on upward trend

By Mihai-Alexandru Cristea

crease with 119 deals recorded (compared to 112 in 2021), while the number of transactions undertaken by foreign investors (inbound) increased by 38 percent year-on-year, to a total of 119.

Todor Kesimov

The Romanian mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market recorded 258 transactions in 2022, with a total estimated value of USD 6.6 billion. This represents a 26 percent increase compared to the deal count of 2021 (206), and an estimated 10 percent higher value on a year-on-year basis (up from USD 6 billion in 2021).

On a global level, after one of the most successful years on record for M&A activity in 2021, last year marked a significant slowdown due to elevated uncertainty, increased financing costs, higher energy prices, and supply-chain disruptions. Multiple headwinds led the value of global M&A to decrease by 37 percent year-on-year, while the value of European M&A decreased by 28 percent. In this context, Romanian M&A activity bucked the global and regional trends and was a clear outperformer. Strategic investors continued to be the dominant players in Romanian M&A, accounting for 88 percent of transactions in 2022. Domestic transactions showed a slight in- is the new Country Manager of Takeda Romania. With a 10-year career within the company, Todor Kesimov held the position of Country Manager in Bulgaria until recently. He started his activity within Takeda as Business Controller for the Romanian and Bulgarian markets, then took on the role of Finance Director for the Balkan region. Recently, while also coordinating operations in Bulgaria, he was the interim Country Manager for Romania. onboarding to development opportunities.

The most active sectors by deal volume were technology (19.4 percent of transactions) and real estate (16.3 percent), followed by healthcare (11.2 percent), power and utilities (8.1 percent) and diversified industrial products (7.8 percent). The top position was reversed between technology and real estate compared to 2021, showing the growing importance of addressing digital transformation needs as well as the slowdown brought to the real estate sector by higher interest rates. Furthermore, M&A activity in the healthcare space was boosted by well-capitalised corporates coming out of the covid crisis stronger.

Sorin Dumitrascu is the new Development Director of Nusco Imobiliara. Dumitrașcu has over 30 years of experience in construction management and has contributed to the development and delivery of multiple major projects, on both the local and international markets. A construction engineer by profession, throughout his career, Dumitrașcu has managed over 25 large-scale projects, both in Romania and globally.

Brico also achieved very good results for its ethics and integrity framework, the way in which its human resources strategy is connected with its business one, as well as for communicating its decisions and the involvement of employees in internal projects. The company’s emphasis on well-being was noted as well: the Brico SOS programme is an assistance service built on three pillars: psychological, legal, and financial counselling.

Ioana Munteanu is the new Creative Director of Golin Romania. A professional with extensive experience in communication and dozens of awards at major local and international festivals, Ioana will coordinate the agency’s creative department, with the goal of strengthening its creative product and providing clients with integrated communication solutions based on consumer insights.