Two things happened this month that change the ground under Bulgarian deals.
On 1 January Bulgaria became the 21st member of the euro area, at the 1999 peg of BGN 1.95583 per euro. The lev stops being legal tender on 1 February. For M&A the practical effects are simple: no conversion mechanics in the SPA, no FX clause in the financing, share capital and statutory accounts restated in euro, and one less item on the foreign buyer’s risk list.
On 27 January CMS and EMIS published the Emerging Europe M&A Report for 2025. The region recorded 1,568 deals, up 22.4%, worth EUR 36.64 billion, up 42.5%. Both are records. Private equity did 330 deals, an all-time high, worth EUR 17.24 billion. Poland led with 331 deals and EUR 13.76 billion. Romania set a record for volume. Bulgaria had 82 deals, slightly fewer than in 2024, but value rose 46% to EUR 839 million.
The largest deals were Erste’s EUR 7 billion purchase of 49% of Santander Bank Polska, completed on 9 January, and GTCR’s EUR 4.1 billion acquisition of Zentiva from Advent.
What we take from the two reports together.
Foreign buyers concentrated on premium assets and paid up for them. Fewer deals in Bulgaria at higher value is consistent with that.
Private equity is now the single most active buyer group in the region. Sponsors have capital to deploy and portfolio companies they need to sell, so both sides of the mid-market are busier.
Euro membership removes one of the standard discounts applied to Bulgarian targets. It does not remove the others - governance, transparency of the numbers, key-person risk. Those are still the seller’s job.
If 2026 is the year you want to test the market, the preparation should start now.
(Sources: CMS Emerging Europe M&A Report 2025/26; ECB; Santander press release, 9 January 2026)