Yukos makes Russia a leader

According to the count of the Dealogic research company, the 188 M&A deals on the Russian market was worth $58.8 billion, up 33% over the same period of last year and leading the next closest market, China, by $2.8 billion. Its is doubtful, however, that Russia will maintaining its leading position, since that high indicator was connected with the division of Yukos assets. Worldwide, the United States lead in mergers and acquisitions, with 3443 deals worth $1.0223 trillion. Russia ranked 11th worldwide. Experts note that Russia's prominent position was attained with a comparatively small number of deals. Moreover, the 15 largest deals account for 80-90% of the money. Thus, in spite of the significant M&A activity on the consumer, financial, media and insurance markets, oil, gas and electricity made up the main worth of Russian mergers and acquisitions.

Goldman Sachs came in first worldwide among investment banks, serving as adviser to 229 deals worth $838 billion. Morgan Stanley was advisor to 180 deals worth $450 billion. Experts note, that banks' compensation varying greatly and depends little on the size of the deal. Some investment banks may receive a small fee for formally participating in a major transaction for the sake of their image. One banker named Rosneft's acquisition of Yukos assets as an example of this. Morgan Stanley was the advisor in that transaction.

Russia's place in the ranking will fall now that Yukos had been divided up. Rosneft spent $25.14 billion on Yukos assets in the period under consideration. That will not be so, if Rosneft and Gazprom begin exchanging their former Yukos properties, however. Otherwise, the M&A market is expected to be $25-30 billion with the acquisition of electric generating plants. The largest M&A deal coming up may be between Gazprom and SUEK. (kommersant.com)