Over the last year, businesses have had to navigate the choppy waters of inflation, growing uncertainty, the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Yet in 2022, the emerging Europe region’s merger and acquisition (M&A) market proved to be extremely resilient — M&A activity maintained a steady pace, though deal values were notably lower than previous years. According to the Emerging Europe M&A Report 2022/2023, by CMS, a law firm with 16 offices across the region, in 2022, there were 1,229 transactions, 5.6 per cent more than in 2021. The deal value, however, dropped by 20.3 per cent and amounted to 32.9 billion euros. Horea Popescu, managing partner at CMS Romania, speaks with Andrew Wrobel about the impact of the geopolitical and macroeconomic circumstances on investment in the region. They discuss which sectors contributed to overall M&A activity in the region and are expected to attract more investment going forward. They also talked about future trends and the role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) on the M&A market.