In first three months of 2009, Moldova’s mergers and acquisition market was on ice waiting for the financial crisis to unfold and for the MP elections to return a final result. However, by the end of the year, the market could emerge from the stand-by mode and bring new investment opportunities in banking system, real estate and vineyard industry, as Alexandru Turcan and Octavian Cazac, partners of Turcan&Turcan law firm told Wall-Street.

What’s still on the market in Moldova?

Financial crisis is at its early stages in Moldova, with investors reverting mode to stand-by. At Chisinau stock exchange, trades have become scarce, and things are not getting any brighter when you step out of the business arena. “We had many deals running in various industries in the second half of last year, but things started to turn sour as of September-October. The profile of a regular client of ours is a western company, usually a European company”, said Alexandru Turcan (photo), managing partner of Turcan&Turcan law firm, which provided legal advisory to clients such as Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley in their 100 million euros investment in Adama Holding last year, and assisted Societe Generale and Veneto Banca in the acquisitions of two Moldovan banks.

Investors are discouraged primarily by the instability of the political scene, after last month elections. It is still unknown whether there will be any anticipated elections or what will be the final component of the government. The possible “election dances” in the coming months would bring foreign investments to a halt, on an acquisition-oriented M&A market. “If we look at the M&A market in Moldova, is not too much of an ‘M’, but only ‘A’. Mergers are much too scarce”, said Turcan.

The market itself cannot be evaluated on the lack of transparency. The majority of private deals are conducted under confiden