Mergermarket, a leading M&A intelligence & data service, recently hosted its European M&A Awards ceremony in London. On this occasion, UniCredit was named out of 6 shortlisted companies, CEE FINANCIAL ADVISER OF THE YEAR, reconfirming its strong position in the region.

“We are extremely proud to receive yet once more this prestigious award, which underlines the dedication of UniCredit to M&A advisory across the entire CEE region. Cooperation across countries and product lines is an intrinsic part of UniCredit's business model and a key driver for our success in Investment Banking. We are particularly proud of the diversity of our M&A clients by geography and sector as well as of the many different types of transactions that our team advised on this year.” said Enrico Minniti, Head of CEE CIB within CEE Division, UniCredit.

The annual European M&A Awards recognise M&A expertise among financial advisors and other M&A professionals.

UniCredit continued also in 2015 to build on its leadership in corporate and investment banking across CEE. In the period under consideration UniCredit advised on a diverse mix of public and private M&A transactions, buy-sides and sell-sides across different sectors.

Key transactions that led to UniCredit’s recognition as best M&A Financial Advisor of the Year in CEE were closed in Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Serbia and Slovenia.

Particularly noteworthy was the advisory to Slovenia's major brewer, Ljubljana-listed Pivovarna Lasko Group and the acquisition of PKP Energetyka by CVC from the Polish State Railways - the largest PE acquisition ever in Poland.

UniCredit also advised on highly visible private equity deals, such as Mid Europa Partners’ acquisition of Danube Foods Group consisting of three leading consumer businesses (dairy, confectionary and water), EQT’s sale of Blizoo Bulgaria to Telekom Austria and Hartenberg’s acquisition of Good Food in Poland.

In Financial Institutions M&A, UniCredit advised Crédit Agricole (“CA”) on the sale of its Albanian subsidiary. This was a follow-up mandate to the sale of CA’s Bulgarian operations in 2014 also executed by UniCredit.

In corporate M&A, UniCredit acted as advisor to Szenkirályi, owner of the leading mineral water brand in Hungary on its combination with Karlovarske Mineralni Vody from Czech Republic, creating a leading mineral water player in Central Europe. UniCredit also advised on buy-sides including EGIS (Hungary) acquisition of Biovital (Poland) and LAMA Energy Group’s acquisition of DIGI Czech Republic.