Political and economic factors continue to rock the transaction boat

Transactional work varies from jurisdiction-to- jurisdiction with the ebb and flow of various economic cycles, but a prevailing theme across the EMEA region has been that more and more advisory firms are urging taxpayers to prepare for the impact of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) action plan. Joe Stanley-Smith investigates how this is impacting key jurisdictions across the region. 

“There is a dramatic downturn in the number of transactions – both in M&A and in closer areas, such as project finance and real estate”, says Ilya Bolotnov, partner at Pepeliaev Group. “The main reason s are lack of financing from foreign banks, which was traditionally a significant source of financing of transactions in Russia. Local financing is also very limited”. “In many situations, deals are affected by the drop of the Russian rubles”.