AK&M Agency has published the 2020 ranking of TOP-30 M&A deals. The ranking includes 30 major deals involving Russian investors or capital confirmed before December 31.
The 30 largest transactions amounted to just over $30 billion, i.e. 75% of the total number of transactions accomplished during the year. According to an AK&M study presented in the Mergers & Acquisitions Market bulletin (No. 274) together with the 2020 results, a total of 466 transactions for a total amount of $39.68 billion hit the Russian M&A market in 2020.
Compared with 2019, the total amount of the top 30 M&A transactions included in the ranking decreased by 30% from $42.3 billion to $30 billion. In 2019, the top 30 M&A events also accounted for 76% of the total market volume ($55.71 billion). The cheapest transaction included in the ranking decreased in price almost twice to $170 million in 2020 from $300 million in 2019.
Only 6 billion-plus transactions hit the Russian M&A market in 2020, which is twice below the 2019 result (12 deals). The combined amount of these transactions ($20.7 billion) accounted for more than half of the whole M&A market in 2020.
The largest 2020 transaction involved a state-owned company: Rosneft exchanged assets with Eduard Khudainatov's Independent Petroleum Company, the amount of transaction reaching $11.1 billion. The transaction was priced substantially above the market. Before the official information was disclosed, experts valued the deal at $5 billion.
The friendly deal in the IT sector, the sale by Anton Cherepennikov of X Holding to Alisher Usmanov in March, was the second biggest M&A deal, the estimated price being $2.17 billion.
The third largest M&A deal was consolidation by Finland's Fortum Corporation of a 73.4% stake in Germany's Uniper Concern, the owner of a 83.73% stake in Russia's PJSC Unipro, for an estimated $2,013.6 million.
The fourth biggest M&A event was consolidation of a 81.47% stake in PJSC Uralkali by Uralchem owner Dmitry Mazepin in December, amounting to $2 billion.
The acquisition by Albert Avdolyan's A-Property of a 51% stake in the Elga coal project ranks fifth. A-Property acquired the stake from Mechel in April 2020; in March, Gazprombank signed an agreement to sell the remaining 49% stake in the Elga project to Avdolyan's company. As a result, A-Property consolidated 100% of Elga. The transaction was completed in December 2020, its value totaled about RUB 142 billion ($1.927 billion).
The acquisition by Vladislav Sviblov's companies of Highland Gold, a large gold mining company, from Roman Abramovich, his partners and British shareholders for $1.45 billion was the sixth biggest M&A deal in Russia.
The breakdown by industries shows that the transactions included in the ranking were most frequently concluded in the construction and development industry. As many as 8 deals in this sector were included in the 2020 top 30 M&A ranking. The largest such transaction was acquisition by Sberbank of 100% of the shares in GFI Investment Limited, the parent company of Filaret Galchev's Eurocement Group, one of the world's leading cement producers. The deal is seventh place in the ranking, amounting to RUB 79.2 billion ($993.9 million). On February 18, 2021, Sber announced the search for an investor to which it could sell the shares in Eurocement Group and assign its receivables from the group. On April 2, the second and final stage of the open bidding for the sale of Eurocement Group's assets on the electronic trading facility of the Auction House of the Russian Federation. Sberbank will announce the final results of the disposal of Eurocement after the winner secures consent of Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia). However, the final price is known to have exceeded the bank's internal targets for this project.
The full 2020 ranking of the top 30 M&A deals is published on http://mergers.akm.ru/.
Other rating studies of AK&M Agency are available at https://akmrating.ru/.
