In January-March 2021, the Russian M&A market with deals valued at $1 million or more increased notably against the 3-month period in 2020. The total amount of transactions increased by 25.8% year-on-year to $7.59 billion against $6.04 billion a year earlier, as stated in AK&M Information Agency's Mergers & Acquisitions Market bulletin (issue 277).
The number of M&A events also increased significantly in January-March 2021 (134 transactions against 109 events a year earlier). Given the Russian ruble depreciation, the amount of transactions in ruble terms increased still stronger in the reporting period (+32.3% to RUB 576.23 billion fr om RUB 435.52 billion in January-March 2020).
Only two transactions exceeded $1 billion in the period under review: in January, Citrix Systems acquired the Wrike team collaboration platform fr om the previous owners (CEO and founder Andrey Filev and Vista Equity Partners fund) for $2.25 billion.
The second largest M&A deal of the quarter was in the metallurgical sector wh ere TMK acquired its competitor Chelpipe Group from its principal shareholder Alexey Komarov. The transaction amounted to $1,112.3 million.
The third largest transaction was in the retail sector wh ere Mikhail Fridman's LetterOne private equity firm acquired the Dia Spanish supermarket chain for $847.8 million. The deal process started back in 2019.
However, assets generally continue to fall in price. The average M&A transaction price (net of megadeals) decreased by 42.1% to $32 million in the first quarter of 2020 from $55.4 million in January-March 2020.
More details on the M&A market performance in January-March 2021 are available in issue 277 of AK&M Information Agency's MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS MARKET monthly bulletin.
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