Investment bankers expect growth of takeovers

Estonia’s leading investment bankers say that this is a buyer’s market right now and expect the number of takeover to increase.

“If you compare it with the situation a year ago when we were contacted by buyers, now most enquiries are coming from owners that offer their business for sale,” Rain Tamm, senior partner of investment bank GILD Bankers, told Eesti Päevaleht.

Tamm says that local business owners have become notably more interested in finding a buyer for their companies which means that there may a wave of foreign investments flowing into Estonia in the next few years.

He added that the biggest obstacle to such takeovers is that sellers are demanding a much higher price for their companies than buyers are ready to pay.

Tamm said that likely takeover targets are operating in very different business sectors and include some large enterprises, but did not specify which.

“The situation is favourable for buyers since prices of companies have come down between 10 and 50 percent in the last 18 months,” said one investment banker who expects venture funds that until now have not been interested in Baltic businesses to become more active. “But also large Scandinavian producers and construction companies have become more active.”

One of the companies that is on the seller’s market is food producer Kalev whose planned takeover by Alta Capital a year ago failed and that could now become interesting for large Finnish confectionery group Fazer. Kalev’s large shareholder Oliver Kruuda nor Fazer’s executives were available for comment.

Source http://balticbusinessnews.com/default2.aspx

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