Lider has explored the business acquisition scene since the beginning of the year. For most of the one hundred transactions involving the largest companies, there is no data on the purchase price. However, these are companies that generated nearly 48 billion kuna in revenue last year, which accounts for five percent of the total revenue of all entrepreneurs. Our research covered one hundred acquirers, as well as more than 170 acquired individual companies. Namely, only Fortenova Group has about 50 subsidiaries. Even when we disregard the ongoing ownership restructuring with outcomes that are more (Petrokemija and Uljanik) or less certain (Fortenova), we analyzed completed acquisitions of another 120 companies that generated 14 billion kuna in revenue last year. Based on this sample, some conclusions can already be drawn.
Of the one hundred largest analyzed acquisitions, the targets were in 75 cases companies in Croatian ownership, five were Russian, four Austrian, three German and three Slovenian… On the other hand, 50 acquirers were domestic entrepreneurs, followed by Dutch and German (five acquisitions each), Czechs with five completed and one initiated (Uljanik), Austrians (four), and Slovenians and Swiss (three each)…
Regarding Croatian companies, 45 acquisitions were realized in completely domestic transactions, Croatian entrepreneurs acquired five companies that were in foreign ownership, while foreigners acquired ownership of 30 companies from domestic entrepreneurs, which generated as much as 7.6 billion kuna in revenue last year (more than half of the revenue of the analyzed companies; excluding Fortenova).
Foreigners are acquiring ownership in large companies, while domestic players – according to their capabilities – find smaller companies more interesting. Of the ten largest acquisitions this year, companies in domestic ownership participated in six transactions, but in five they were the targets of acquisition.
