Sabah – Turkey’s vibrant mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market had a very active six months, leading the 11-country Central and South Eastern European region with 126 transactions, according to Ernst & Young’s M&A Barometer report for the first half.

The estimated sum of the transactions that involved Turkish companies during the respective period reached USD 11.8 billion, leaving Poland and Czech Republic far behind in terms of deal volume. The whole region’s total reached USD 19.3 billion, down 33 percent when compared to the same period of the previous year. The report excludes the selling of state assets and focuses on M&A activities by private parties including transactions made abroad.

The financial advisory and auditing firm’s report listed major deals including the acquisition of Dexia’s Turkish unit Denizbank by Sberbank for USD 3.5 billion, brewer Anadolu Efes’ merging of Russian and Ukrainian operations with SABMiller for USD 1.9 billion and Aéroports de Paris’ partnering with Turkish airport operator TAV for USD 874 million.

Last year, total volume of M&A deals in Turkey reached USD 15 billion in 241 transactions. Ernst & Young foresees a USD 20 billion deal volume for Turkey’s M&A activities in 2012. Source: IIT