A total of 22  merger and acquisition deals to the amount of USD 600 M have been concluded in Bulgaria in the period January – June, 2016, exactly the same number as in the same period of 2015, showed a survey of international consultancy company Ernst & Young Global Limited.

“There are more and more companies in Bulgaria which are of interest to the strategic plans of investors. The sales of Bulgarian companies, which give access to market share, a strategically interesting technological solution, business model or innovation which may be implemented by a bigger market player, are not singular cases anymore,” stated the head of the Transaction Advisory Services department at Ernst & Young Bulgaria Diana Nikolova.

The most active sectors are Information technologies with 6 concluded deals, and Banking and Financial Services with 3 deals for the period.

The average amount of the deals concluded in Bulgaria is USD 25 M.

In the first half of 2016, 82% of the deals in the country were concluded by strategic investors.

In 45% of the deals, both the buyer and the seller were Bulgarian companies, while in another 45% the buyers were foreign.

The buyers were Bulgarian investors buying companies abroad in only 10% of the deals.