Mergers and acquisitions in Belarus

As the economy has liberalised, Belarus has seen increasing amount of M&A activity with deals worth more than US $1.5 billion done in 2008 alone.

This was a large increase on previous years and included 21 cross border deals amounting to US $831 million, excluding the revenue received by the government from selling a share of Beltransgaz, its gas pipeline network, to Russian energy giant Gazprom.

The majority of deals took place in the financial sector – with 13 deals in 2008, up from nine the previous year, and the value of business in the banking sector hitting US $175 million.

Uniter expects M&A activity to grow in the financial services sector, particularly in insurance and among the banks as more are privatised under the government’s programme to liberalise the sector.

It also forecasts M&A in the general retail and food and drink sectors as competition in the consumer segment increases. Pharmaceuticals and telecommunications are also expected to be busy areas.

send friend

print version

make home page

add to bookmarks