BDK’s senior partner Vladimir Dašić spoke at FINIZ round table on trends in mergers and acquisitions in Serbia in light of the pending COVID-19 crisis. He stressed that the crisis had a significant negative impact on the economies of the region. Serbia declared the state of emergency in spring which significantly disturbed economic activity. However, starting from the beginning of July investors resumed activity in the sectors that proved to be resilient or even flourishing during COVID-19 crisis, such as FMCG, IT, pharmaceutical and home care products. Vladimir also noted that M&A transactions taking place in these extraordinary times require implementation of certain drafting solutions that have not been so far common in the local practice, such as anti-embarrassment clause and earn-out mechanism.
Vladimir is optimistic and believes that M&A activity will remain strong in sectors that were bulletproof to the crisis. Economic recovery is expected to receive a boost from infrastructural projects that should be unveiled and implemented soon. A new pipeline of investments is expected as a result of the opening of the regional office of the US Development Finance Corporation in Belgrade. Chinese investors are also expected to retain interest.
