The average value of deals sealed in the third quarter of 2008 in Romania dropped by 78% to 32m euros from 148 mln euros in the same period in 2007, although the number of deals doubled, Ziarul Financiar reported.

In the third quarter of 2008, the Romanian M&A market reached 975 mln euros, down 70% from the 3.3 bln-euro level posted in the same period of 2007.

In July-September 2008 period, the sectors that witnessed the biggest number of deals were the financial one (7 deals with an overall value of 389 mln euros), real estate (10 deals of 310 mln euros, but down 58% from 2007) and energy (3 deals of 200 mln euros).

In the first nine months of this year the Romanian M&A market dropped by only 4.5%, from 4.87bn euros to 4.65bn euros.

As regards the countries the most dynamic investors in Romania came from, they are Italy, Austria, France and Germany.

The market thus registered a strong contraction after having soared by around 150% in the first six months compared with a year ago, hurt by the tighter access to banking loans and by the financial crisis that started spreading.