Only one deal above 100m euros this year

Only one transaction concluded this year exceeded 100 million euros, whereas last year there were seven deals above this level, reveals a ZF analysis based on market data. In all, the mergers and acquisitions market amounted to 1.1 billion euros in the first eight months of this year, down 75% against the similar time of 2008, according to data from Raiffeisen Investment bank. "The picture is bleak: only 12% of deals worth 10 million euros on average have been concluded by financial investors, mainly involving small real estate projects, while strategic investors made acquisitions worth somewhere in between 5 and 15 million euros on average, depending on whether one considers or not the estimated values of transactions not reported yet," said Ioana Filipescu, managing director of Raiffeisen Investment Romania.