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Mergers and Acquisitions Between Russia and OECD Members Collapse

Date

02 May 2016

Sections

Euro & Finance
Europe's East

The number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) taking place between Russian  companies  and  companieslocated in countries included in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) have come to an almost complete standstill as a result of the latest political events surrounding the crisis in Crimea. In 2015, only 43 M&A transactions took place between Western and Russian businesses, fewer than ever since data collection began. These are the findings of calculations by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) based on the Zephyr database of Bureau van Dijk (BvD).

In 2014, 129 deals were completed. The latest development therefore equates to a 67 per cent decrease within one year. Even in 2012, the year which previously had the lowest number of M&As on record, 83 mergers and acquisitions took place, double the number seen in 2015.

Things seem even more drastic if one considers the aggregated financial volume of all completed M&A transactions. Whilst the volume of deals in 2014 totalled 4.23 billion euros, which was already the lowest recorded aggregated transaction value since records began, this value fell by more than 90 per cent in 2015. The financial volume of deals has fallen to 339 million euros. This development is not, however, exclusively a result of political tension and investors' fears of an increase in sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia.

Over the last years, several of the large deals with Russian involvement, such as the acquisition of the Canadian nickel corporation Lionore by the Russian firm Norilsk Nickel in 2007 (3.8 billion euro), or the 50 per cent participation of the Russian oil corporation Rosneft in the Germany-based firm Ruhr Öl in 2010 (1.6 billion euros, now in the process of being dissolved), took place in the commodities sector.  For some time past, this sector has been in crisis and has just recently undergone significant consolidation.

 

For further information please contact:

Sven Heim, Phone +49 (0)621 1235-183, E-mail heim@zew.de

The Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)

ZEW is one of Germany’s leading economic research institutes and enjoys a strong reputation throughout Europe. The institute works in the field of frontier empirical research in economics and maintains important scientific data bases, e.g. the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP) and the ZEW Start-up Panel. ZEW is integrated into an extensive international network of universities and research institutions. ZEW’s key objectives are to conduct excellent economic research, provide science-based economic policy advice and transfer knowledge. ZEW was founded in 1991 and employs a staff of approximately 190, two thirds of whom are researchers.

Research at ZEW

Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy; Industrial Economics and International Management; Information and Communication Technologies; International Finance and Financial Management; Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management; Corporate Taxation and Public Finance; International Distribution and Redistribution; Competition and Regulation

www.zew.de / www.zew.eu

About Bureau van Dijk

Bureau van Dijk (BvD) is the leading provider of private company, corporate ownership and deal information. BvD’s product range combines data from regulatory and other sources, including 140 information partners, with flexible software to allow users to manipulate data for a range of research needs and applications. Its Orbis database provides information on 200m companies across the globe.

In addition, BvD addresses specific business challenges through its range of Catalysts, including transfer pricing, credit, procurement, KYC, client on-boarding, M&A research and valuations, while BvD custom delivers bespoke solutions.

The company has a global presence with over 30 offices worldwide. For more information on BvD, visit www.bvdinfo.com. Twitter: @bureauvandijk and @bvdus

Zephyr is the world's largest database containing key figures and information about 1.4 million deals and rumoured transactions. Further information is available at http://www.bvdinfo.com/de-de/our-products/economic-and-m-a/m-a-data/zephyr