ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Ileana Glodeanu, Andreea Cărare, George Ghitu and Delia Dumitrescu, Wolf Theiss
international law firm and two Romanian law firms. A member of the Bucharest Bar since 2018, she graduated from the University of Bucharest with an LLM in Private Law.
Wolf Theiss 4 Vasile Alecsandri Street The Landmark, Building A 010639 Bucharest Romania
Tel: +40 21 3088 100 Fax: +40 21 3088 125 Email: bucuresti@wolftheiss.com Web: www.wolftheiss.com
1. Transaction Activity 1.1 Private Equity Transactions and M&A Deals in General With the COVID-19 outbreak disrupting the M&A mar - ket in 2020, the start of the war in Ukraine in 2023 and the elections in 2024, Romania faced one challenge after the other. For a short period, this seemed to force investors to reassess their priorities and investment plans. However, the M&A market remained buoyant, as indi - cated by the fact that the Romanian FDI Screening Commission finalised 50% more cases in 2024 com - pared to 2023; in 2024, a total of 471 foreign direct investment (FDI) screenings were completed, com - pared to 259 in 2023. Notably, in recent years, there has been a notice - able shift from numerous smaller, local transactions towards larger, more strategic deals. Romania has seen several high-profile deals that exemplify this trend: • CVC Capital Partners, through Mehiläinen, acquired Regina Maria, the country’s top private healthcare provider, in a transaction valued at approximately USD1.4 billion for the Romanian leg;
• Urgent Cargus was acquired by Sameday for an undisclosed value, completing a trio of exits in Romania for Mid Europa, after the sale of Profi and Regina Maria; • CVC also teamed up with Therme Group in a USD1.2 billion joint venture to scale up Therme’s wellness concept across Europe; and • in a separate deal, a 70% stake in La Cocos, a local retail chain, was sold to Schwarz Gruppe for roughly USD117 million, following a 56% share purchase by CEECAT Capital, Morphosis Capital and EBRD in the previous year. Private equity deals in Romania and the wider Cen - tral and Eastern European (CEE) region are also shift - ing noticeably towards larger, sector-driven transac - tions, with the most active sectors being healthcare, technology, real estate, hospitality and construction, energy and utilities. Also, sectors such as advanced manufacturing, logistics and business services are drawing more investment into Romania. As regards deal structures, leveraged buyouts are the predominant structure. Minority investments are increasingly used for growth-stage companies in need of capital to scale operations, especially in tech and healthcare.
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