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Energy/Utilities

In 2007, worldwide transaction value of deals in the energy sector reached a new record level of EUR 485 bn, showing a 13% year on year increase. With more than half of that volume falling into the second half of the year, the sector seemed to be undeterred by the effects of the credit crunch.
Even though some impact will eventually be seen in the future, many corporate players in the sector have high levels of cash to invest.

We believe that the CSEE region will continue to offer attractive opportunities in the energy sector for these players since the main deal drivers like e.g. liberalisation and market integration across Europe, industry consolidation and growing competition for customers are still intact.

Furthermore energy demand in the CEE and SEE countries is expected to continue to grow faster than in Western European countries while at the same time these countries are facing the challenge of ageing and insufficient capacity to meet that demand in the future. Furthermore, stricter environmental standards will put additional pressure one CSEE region regarding security of supply.

Another important field of growth will be renewable energy. With many of the CEE and SEE countries joining the European Union they have the obligation to meet the EU climate targets. Currently, renewable energy is relatively underdeveloped in most of these countries and thus major investments will be necessary in the coming years in order to comply with those goals.

All of the above mentioned factors are clear indicators that even in an economically unfavourable environment the energy sector in the CSEE region should remain resilient to a potential economic downturn.

Doing business in these regions requires knowledge of local culture, the specific sectors and relationships with decision-makers. Raiffeisen Investment’s energy team offers an integrated solution combining sector expertise with local know-how provided by our subsidiaries in every major CEE capital. Moreover we provide access to the full range of the Raiffeisen group's financial products.

Our energy team focuses on privatisations and general M&A advisory services and merchant banking in the following fields: