Mazars in CEE ranks #5 for M&A Transaction Services by deal count according to ‘Mergermarket Accountant League Table 2021’

“We are proud to be ranked again among the top 5 providers of M&A Transaction Services this year in the Central and Eastern Europe Accountant League table by Mergermarket. This excellent result is a proof of our strong client relationships, who have entrusted our dedicated Financial Advisory teams with their development projects. We realized several financial and tax due diligence assignments for regional and international enterprises, private equity and venture capital funds, in close cooperation with our business partners, including legal firms, investment banks, financial institutions, etc. All matters – whether large or small – are important to us and we would like to thank our clients for their trust. We are looking forward to a busy start of 2022”, says Michel Kiviatkowski, Mazars in CEE Financial Advisory Leader, Managing Partner of Mazars in Poland.

Slovakia saw a total of 16 M&A transactions in 2021 – one deal fewer than in 2020. Disclosed M&A deal value for the year was €69 million, a significant increase on the €6 million seen in the previous year.

Despite the relatively low volume of dealmaking, Slovakia’s M&A market has much to offer. Startups and scale-ups are growing in strength, fuelled by a younger generation of entrepreneurs looking to partner with private equity or tap into state-managed funds. “Our main focus is on SMEs and scale-ups,” says Igor Mišík, Senior Manager at Mazars in Slovakia. “SMEs with a long-term strategy and growth focus are looking to secure the future through acquisitions. Those not negatively affected by Covid-19 in 2021 had surplus cash – in many cases, those companies did conglomerate acquisitions, because they saw opportunities coming out of the blue and just seized them.”

Rising valuations are a fact of life in Slovakia as they are in the rest of the CEE region, observes Mišík: “Buyers need to be cleverer in post-acquisition process and look for additional synergies. Ongoing Covid-19 restrictions and the ending of government subsidies means there will be a shakeout in some sectors, and this will reveal how well acquirers managed to restructure their business model.”

One sector that could do well in 2022 is healthcare, predicts Mišík: “The pandemic has left state healthcare personnel exhausted and demotivated. This could lead to exodus of personnel to private healthcare facilities putting even more pressure on the state healthcare system. Non-urgent operations were put on hold during Covid-19 peaks making already long waiting periods even longer. This combined with often under-average quality of treatment make patients turn more regularly to private healthcare.”

Drawing on the deal advisory expertise of 80+ seasoned professionals present in CEE countries, Mazars works together as one international team across borders and functions to deliver quality services, augmented with industry knowledge and jurisdiction-specific expertise. We provide support to our local and international clients with transaction services (including financial and tax due diligence), valuations, corporate finance, M&A, post-merger integration, infrastructure finance, restructuring and forensic. As an integrated firm, Mazars provides the same quality and technical standards as well as project methodologies meaning we deliver a consistent, seamless services wherever our clients need them, around the CEE region and the world.