December 16, 2014 16:15 
The global M&A market sees its best year since the financial crisis, deal values in 2014 being in line to top levels not seen since 2007, according to a preview of international law firm Clifford Chance’s latest Global M&A Trends report.
Increasing activity on the M&A market has been noticed in Romania, too, where the firm’s local branch has been involved in numerous such projects throughout the year, says Nadia Badea, Partner with Clifford Chance Badea: "The local Corporate M&A team had a busy year, given intensifying activity from investors either by reactivating older and unfinished projects, either by launching new ones at a local or regional level. We have advised or are currently advising projects in Real Estate, Oil & Gas, Finance, Pharma, Services, Consumer Business, and Agriculture. We expect even more activity in the first half of the year, with large transactions about to close”.
The Romanian market saw decreasing activity in the M&A field in the first six months of 2014, however, the second half marked a positive evolution, with some major transactions announced, especially in the real estate sector, where Nepi and Globalworth, the most active investment funds on the domestic market continued the consolidation of their portfolios.
Globally, cross-border M&A continues to rise, with M&A activity between the five main regions accounting for 25 percent of total global M&A deal value, with healthcare and consumer goods/ retail become the fast rising sectors for M&A activity.
Europe and Asia Pacific have continued to see growth in M&A deals, while the US once again proves its resilience with deals totalling US$ 1.185 trillion in 2014 to date, a 54 percent increase year-on–year and including a 179 percent increase in inbound deals by value.
Financial sponsors who traditionally focused on private equity in developed markets have diversified into multiple asset classes, new niche sectors and different geographies. In particular, sponsors are shifting their focus away from the low growth developed economies and into high growth markets such as those in Africa where inbound investment from the US has increased materially over the year, and intra-African M&A has risen nearly four-fold, explains a release of the law firm.
"2014 has been a strong year for global M&A. As corporates seek to expand their global footprints and consolidate within their industries, and financial sponsors look for higher returns in new markets and sectors, we have seen strong levels of cross-regional M&A. This is typically financed with excess cash, or through tapping the global pools of liquidity which are increasingly available from a growing range of sources and with very attractive pricing”, comments Guy Norman, Global Head of Clifford Chance's Corporate Practice, who believes that in spite of global uncertainties and challenges which affects predictability as regards M&A activity in 2015, there still are attractive opportunities for those who are informed, agile and prepared to take manageable risks.
