M&A Market: No Regrets After Mergers

Bosqar Invest is undoubtedly the company with the highest acquisition activity in Croatia. To date, it has successfully acquired more than eighty companies, and at the end of June this year, it concluded one of its most significant acquisitions to date, Mlinar bakery industry, which thus became part of its food vertical called Future Food. This acquisition followed the merger with the Slovenian Panvita at the end of last year.

When entering an acquisition, regardless of whether selling or buying, one of the key segments, besides the financial aspect, is people. Investing in companies where owners share the acquirer’s vision and continuing cooperation with their management teams, who deeply understand the business and the market, is extremely important as it preserves business continuity and stability, as confirmed by Bosqar’s CEO Darko Horvat.

– The most successful collaborations are those where you feel that partners recognize your approach and realize that they can become part of a broader story that achieves long-term results and opens up many opportunities. I believe that is why many previous owners and their core teams stay with us even after the acquisition. In practice, this means that former owners and managers do not remain just passive observers; they often become our partners in further development – Horvat told us, noting that some of them now lead international projects, others are board members, and others are key in mentoring new leaders.

Strengthened by the investment of Bosqar and its partners, Mlinar is, as they tell us from the company, in an ideal position to continue realizing its ambitions regarding regional and international markets. This acquisition, they claim, represents an opportunity to open additional space for fresh initiatives and new energy. A long-term partnership with MidEuropa, which now continues in the role of minority owner, gives them additional strength and stability. This continuity is an important foundation for further significant growth of the Mlinar Group in all areas.

– The inclusion of Mlinar in Bosqar’s food vertical allows us greater readiness for further development and market breakthroughs in the region. Our plan is to double the business in the next three to four years. What is equally important to me as financial indicators is the company culture and the people who carry it. We want Mlinar to remain recognized as the strongest bakery brand in the region, but also as a place where employees, as before, feel valued and motivated – says Mlinar’s CEO Mladen Veber.

A Vibrant Acquisition Scene

According to Pitchbook data, a leading global platform for capital market analysis, 64 acquisition transactions were realized in Croatia last year, and according to the same source, 34 merger and acquisition transactions were finalized in Croatia from the beginning of this year until the beginning of August. This data is disputed by partner in the Financial Consulting Department of Forvis Mazars Adria Andrija Garofulić, who told us that there are many more.

–​ So far, there is no exact statistic for 2025, but according to publicly available data, the number of significant transactions is approximately at the same level, with ‘significant transactions’ often considered those with a value greater than five million dollars. It is also important to mention that in 2024, and it can be expected this year as well, there were many more transactions than 64 because there are a large number of smaller transactions that were not recorded but still significantly impacted the market – Garofulić told us.

And in the last twelve months, there have been indeed large transactions in Croatia. The largest is, of course, Podravka’s acquisition of Fortenova agribusiness for 333 million euros. It is also worth recalling the acquisition of Pan-pek carried out by Polish Inter Europol. There have also been acquisitions in IT, led by Končar, which has concluded several acquisitions in recent years. Recently, the company Sedam IT was sold to Bulgarian Telelink, then Diverta to French Marlink, and earlier this year we wrote about how the founders of Infigo IS sold the company to the Swedish group Allurity.

Furthermore, acquisitions are also present in private healthcare, especially in the dental segment, as well as in veterinary medicine, where the ASEF private equity- fund owned by Igor Čička leads. Finally, there is retail, where, of course, Studenac is the most active, expanding its sales network through various acquisitions of small stores.

– Our transaction teams have significantly more projects in the last two years and advise clients when selling companies, but also when buying them. In 2024, we worked on more than fifty transactions in the Adria region, and 2025 has been even better so far. By the end of August, we worked on more than thirty transactions of buying or selling companies in Croatia and the region – Garofulić explained.

In Crowe, this year, the most pronounced activities are seen in tourism and energy, specifically renewable energy sources. As the head of the M&A department at Crowe, Martina Kordej Kuharski, told us, domestic strategic buyers are active in sectors they know well, while foreign investors target larger or strategically significant targets.

– In the broader regional context, the market continues to show sustainability despite global uncertainty – Kordej Kuharski notes.

A Good Moment for Domestic Players

Mergers and acquisitions processes are often lengthy, complex, and require complete commitment and discipline, as Horvat told us, adding that each transaction encompasses hundreds of interrelated steps and demands uncompromising attention to detail: from due diligence and valuation to negotiations and structuring the transaction, all the way to meticulously developed integration plans that enable the realization of synergy and long-term value for shareholders.

But what exactly is the main driver of such an active merger and acquisition market in Croatia? The answer to that question was given to us by M&A expert and partner at Caper Joško Vučetić.

– For acquirers, these are consolidation, market expansion, especially in fragmented niches, and digitalization. For sellers, it is most often a question of succession and carve-out, i.e., separating non-core assets and parts of the business. Recently, there has been a noticeable trend of exiting ownership for the monetization of business value: limited ownership power and managerial capacities for the next development phase of the company, achieved development goals, limited growth, and so on – Vučetić explains, to whom we also asked what the share of foreign investors is compared to domestic ones.

Kordej Kuharski also tells us that the main drivers of M&A activity in Croatia can be seen through several intertwined trends, stating that, firstly, M&A is no longer a taboo topic as the sale of companies is openly discussed and increasingly accepted as a natural exit strategy for family businesses and a solution to succession issues.

– Secondly, the volume of transactions is contributed to by add-on acquisitions and consolidations in certain sectors, such as healthcare, retail, technology, energy, and similar, under strategic buyers and private equity funds. And thirdly, we are witnessing the restructuring of portfolios of large regional groups through the sale of non-core assets, Kordej Kuharski explains, adding the trend of market maturation as a fourth item that is important in the M&A segment.

– A whole ecosystem and capital chain is developing, from accelerators, pre-seed investments, and business angels, through venture capital funds to private equity funds and strategic buyers, so M&A becomes a common route as companies progress through development phases – Kordej Kuharski notes.

But what about the origin of capital? According to Vučetić, foreign investors certainly lead in the domestic market, although Podravka, Končar, and other domestic companies have improved that picture last year and this year, but not enough.

– It is a good moment in favor of domestic investors, and I hope that this trend will continue – Vučetić added.

In larger transactions, which are numerically fewer, Kordej Kuharski adds, foreign or mixed capital most often participates, especially in infrastructure and energy. In the medium and small segments, there is a higher share of domestic investors.

– The interest of international investors is stable but also selective towards larger opportunities – Kordej Kuharski says.

A Year-Long Process

Of course, every acquisition is different, and they all vary from sector to sector. A significant acquisition this year is that of a part of InterCapital Asset Management’s (ICAM) business carried out by Erste Asset Management (EAM). Although companies are generally bought for talent and experience, EAM acquired only the business, without management. Negotiations for this acquisition from the first informal contacts to the signing of the purchase agreement lasted almost a year.

– Moreover, the closing process took an additional six months due to the need to divide the company into the part we as EAM acquired and the part that remained in the previous ownership. Since Erste operates in a large number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, in some of them it was necessary to collect positive opinions from regulatory agencies, especially those regulating market competition protection. Each phase of the acquisition process had specific challenges. For us at EAM in Croatia, this was our first acquisition, which made it perhaps even more challenging, but with the support of colleagues from Vienna and financial and legal advisors, we managed to successfully bring everything to a close – said EAM’s CEO Josip Glavaš.

The financial sector, as well as the fund segment in which EAM operates, is highly regulated, so for such a process, Glavaš says, you must arm yourself with patience, be flexible, seek new ways of negotiating and a common language with all stakeholders in the process, and always look towards the ultimate goal. Therefore, it is not surprising that more than forty people from EAM’s side were involved in this specific acquisition, not counting external legal and financial advisors.

There Are Those Who Regret

Excellent experiences in M&A transactions are the most common in the domestic market, but we also know a few entrepreneurs who regretted after selling their company. However, they are, at least as it seems from conversations with consultants and entrepreneurs, in the minority. Besides acquisitions, recent times have also seen consolidations, especially in the segment of utility companies and drainage, which is quite interesting to observe. A significant merger also occurred last summer in the education sector when Algebra University and Edward Bernays Polytechnic merged into a new private institution – Algebra Bernays University – which is the first such merger of educational institutions in Croatia. This association came after years of collaboration on various projects, teacher exchanges, and sharing common values, and now as a unified institution, it is the largest private university in Croatia.

From education to IT, healthcare, the financial sector, utility companies to food companies and major players in the capital market, there is hardly a sector where we have not seen consolidations and acquisitions in the past year. The next period is expected to continue such positive trends in the M&A market, supported by the market activity of funds. Therefore, there is no peace in the segment of mergers and acquisitions.

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