Poland – Distressed M&A 2022

Distressed M&A transactions occurred very rarely in Poland at the time of the economic boom following Poland’s accession to the European Union. During the Covid-19 crisis, distressed M&A transactions have been much more likely to occur in various business sectors, including retail, gastronomy, leisure, hospitality and steel. While the distressed funds have a great appetite for these types of projects, likely buyers will also be quire opportunistic, including strategic players. 

The largest distressed M&A transaction that has taken place in the Polish market was the sale of assets of distressed wind farm group Inventus to Tauron Polska Energia in 2019 for approximately €137 million. The buyer also acquired the bank debt from the lender – Hamburg Commercial Bank AG. Interestingly, both in-court and out-of-court tracks were considered, with the parties eventually choosing the out-of-court route. Given the pandemic situation in Poland and economic crisis, the number of distressed M&As is likely to grow towards the end of 2021 and in the course of 2022.

Originally published in Distressed M&A – Work areas – Getting The Deal Through – Lexology