The M&A market with a threshold of $1 million in October 2023 decreased slightly against the result of the same period last year. This is stated in the bulletin "Mergers and Acquisitions Market" of the AK&M News Agency (issue No. 308).
The total value of transactions decreased by 30.8%, amounting to $3.19 billion against $4.61 billion a year earlier. In ruble terms, the amount of transactions in the reporting period increased slightly — by 4.9%, to 297.64 billion rubles from 283.8 billion rubles in October last year. The fall of the ruble against the dollar this year has had an impact.
The decrease in volumes is explained by the closure of a major deal in October 2022: the sale by the German Mercedes-Benz concern of its Russian automobile plant, as well as the distributor's rights to the Avtodom group of companies, estimated at $1,657.6 million.
There were no transactions of this scale in October of this year: no transactions worth more than $1 billion were recorded during the month. The largest transaction of the reporting period was concluded in the timber and pulp and paper industries and was associated with the departure of a foreign investor.
Thus, the Austrian Mondi Group sold Syktyvkar LPC LLC to the developer Sezar Group for $858 million.
The second place is occupied by a trade transaction — this is the acquisition by the federal retailer Lenta of the regional network Monetka from the founder of the network Roman Zabolotnov for an estimated $697.1 million.
In the third place, the largest transaction in construction and development: VTB Bank acquired Edisonenergo LLC from ADG Group on account of debt, estimated at $493.3 million.
The price of realizable assets is also decreasing. The average transaction value in October 2023 decreased by 31.8% to $84 million from $123.1 million (excluding the largest) in the same period of 2022.
At the same time, the number of transactions increased: 38 transactions took place in October 2023, whereas 25 transactions were recorded a year earlier. Interest in assets is not waning, although their value has fallen.
At the same time, transactions that are classified as internal according to our methodology (when the asset is located in Russia and the buyer is a Russian resident), but the seller is a foreign investor, became noticeably smaller in October 2023.
In this month, only 5 such transactions out of 38 (13.2%) were recorded, their total value amounted to $876.2 million. This is 27.4% of the total transaction volume of the month.
The largest transaction in October, named above, belongs to this category and occupies almost the entire volume of this segment — the rest are much smaller.
Read more about the results of the M&A market in issue No. 308 of the monthly bulletin "Mergers and Acquisitions Market" of the AK&M News Agency.
All agency bulletins can be purchased at the AK&M Analytical Bulletins and Research Store.
