Reff & Associates, the correspondent law firm of Deloitte Romania, saw a 40% increase in the volume of deals assisted last year, to almost 700 million Euro, with some major projects added to its local portfolio.
“2008 was extremely dynamic especially in the first part of the year, and our team was involved in negotiations initiated in various market segments, from real estate and financial services, where we already had solid references, to public procurement, media and advertising, publishing, transportation, IT&C, environmental services, agriculture,” said Partner Alexandru Reff.
He added that the firm had assisted negotiations for deals worth hundreds of millions of euro Euro (particularly in the financial services industry) put on hold due to uncertain market conditions.
“We certainly do not expect similar dynamics this year in the M&A market, but law firms are relatively versatile and should be able to adjust their services to a changed demand, most probably focused on public sector and EU-funded projects, corporate (re)structuring, employment, energy, competition compliance, litigation and others,” Reff added.
One of the major deals was announced in July, when Russian-based Luxoft took over the local ITC Networks, one of the most important software services suppliers for the telecommunications industry. Together with the Deloitte Tax team, Reff & Associates provided professional assistance to shareholders of the Romanian company, thus being part in the making of a group with more than 3,000 employees worldwide and annual revenues exceeding 90 million Euro.
Also, Reff & Associates assisted RHS Company– one of the most important IT&C distributors on the local market – in acquiring ProCa Romania, the IT&C distribution division of the RTC group. The deal, announced end-August, was a strategic one for RHS, since it aims at becoming th