Emerging Europe M&A Report 2020/2021

Europe

We are delighted to announce that the latest edition of the CMS and EMIS ‘Emerging Europe M&A Report’ is now available.

The report offers a high-level analysis of M&A activity in emerging Europe in 2020 and looks at trends and investment activity across key sectors and markets.

M&A activity in emerging Europe took a hit in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with the volume of deals reaching its lowest levels in the last 11 years. There were 1,705 deals with a combined value of EUR 60.80bn, down by 12.9% and 16% respectively from 2019. Despite the ongoing restrictions, the market showed signs of recovery towards the end of the year, producing the highest fourth-quarter deal value (EUR 24.28bn) since 2016.

Telecoms & IT overtook Real Estate & Construction as the busiest sector by deal volume with 333 deals in 2020 (an increase of 11% from 2019). Financial Services & Insurance was the only other sector that witnessed an uptick in deals with a 8.6% increase. Meanwhile, private equity investment remained steady year-on-year and now accounts for 18.7% of the overall deal count, and capital markets also experienced a successful year with EUR 4.79bn worth of IPOs.

The tenth annual edition of our report gives an overview of the top foreign investor locations and sectors with the highest M&A activity by deal count and value. It also includes a series of insights and interviews with some of the key market players and CMS partners, who comment on transactional trends in emerging Europe and discuss projections on the direction of M&A trends in the future.

Find out more: https://cms.law/en/int/publication/emerging-europe-m-a-report-2020-2021

For more information, please get in touch with your usual contact at CMS or one of the following local CMS experts: Horea Popescu, Rapoje Petrikic.