Romania is the least attractive destination for German investors, the lack of interest and high dissatisfaction degree being the main reasons for the absence of deals in the local M&A market, said Roland Teufel, Partner Ensight Romania at the M&A Outlook 2010 conference organized by Wall-Street together with Enterprise Investors, Ernst&Young and Ensight.
“The key question for investors in the survey carried by German Trade Chamber was how attractive certain countries were. I’ve heard talking about the cash shortages in Romania and about how attractive the country is”, said Teufel.
The results of the survey place Romania at a lowly position in German investors’ preference list, being the least attractive destinations for PE funds, that in the conditions that our country could be more interesting than any of our neighboring countries.
Of all the regions covered, Bulgaria scored higher than Romania. According to the 2009-2010 competitiveness index, Bulgaria scored 76 points, while Romania 64. Hungary scored 58 points, Slovakia 47 points, Poland – 46 points, and Czech Republic – 31 points.
“The consistency of decisions made by authorities it is an important criterion for investors and it is pretty low in case of Romania. The country is also not an option in terms production, due to poor infrastructure. Moreover, the situation of public administration coupled with low income determines a very bad perception of Romania”, said the representative of Ensight Romania.
In this context, Cornelia Bumbacea, representative of Ernst&Young said Romania also had a number of advantages in the decision-making process, but don’t outweigh the disadvantages.
For the thawing of the M&A market in Romania, six sectors must be considered so as to improve them, Teufel said.
Thus, the restructuring and reshuffle of the public system, the removal of the po