We are delighted to launch the second edition of the “Emerging Europe: M&A Report”, which has been
co-authored by CMS and Emerging Markets M&A information and data source ‘DealWatch‘. The Report
highlights 2012 Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) activity in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region and provides our deal activity predictions for 2013.
Being a leading law firm on the CEE M&A market, CMS is ideally placed to comment on the deal activity in the region, based on data compiled by DealWatch. We have again asked our partners and associates to outline their views on the markets in which they operate.
2012 was an unpredictable and turbulent year - a feared Greek exit from the Eurozone, widespread
economic turmoil and threats to the single currency’s survival - all scenarios looked very possible. The
uncertain situation was refl ected in the number of deals, which dropped to its lowest level since 2009.
Despite the above the CMS corporate team remained busy across the region and once the deals started, and term sheets were exchanged, various deals signed, some with completion scheduled for 2013. Financing still remained heavily constrained and bank lending practices were more cautious than ever. Still, our CEE financing team worked on several high profi le deals - the Walmark acquisition financing, €330m leveraged recapitalisation of SBB Serbia, Telemach Slovenia and Telemach Bosnia, and on a $540m loan to DTEK, the largest privately-owned, vertically-integrated energy company in Ukraine.
The outlook for CEE for 2013 continues to be dominated by the uncertain evolution of the debt crisis in
Europe. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has lowered its growth forecasts for 2013, warning that the world economy could easily slip into recession if the US and the Eurozone’s fiscal problems are not resolved quickly.
The CEE region remains attractive to investors. It has been refl ected in the growing interest from China
which has opened a $10bn special credit line for joint investment projects in east European infrastructure and technology and a $500m investment co-operation fund.
We believe that 2013 will again bring a steady fl ow of deals. Despite turbulent times, CMS remains dedicated to the CEE region with the leading corporate M&A legal practice and the most extensive and experienced office network offering deal experts on the ground who are able to advise you on your future transactions.
We hope you will find the report useful.
