In the last couple of years GDPR has become a buzzword for legal, finance and other practitioners. The EU data protection regulation has had an impact on countries and business not only in the EU but also in many other countries, including Moldova.
According to the fresh report from Merrill Corporation it now becomes a major issue in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The provisions of GDPR have come to carry significant implications for M&A transactions.
According to the study more than half of practitioners surveyed across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region said that they felt had withdrawn from certain deals due to concerns related to GDPR compliance by target companies.
The related issues should be of particular importance not only for EU-based practitioners. For example, about 50 % of specialists surveyed in Turkey and more than 40% in the Middle East and Africa region said that they had withdrawn from a transaction because of GDPR related concerns. And their impact on M&A transactions and related due diligence process in those regions is expected to be even stronger in the near future.
An alternative to withdrawing from transaction could be making investments into developing GDPR compliance mechanisms and risk mitigation at the due diligence and pre-acquisition stage. However, failing to pay necessary attention to these issues may result in significant risks of penalties for non-compliance in future.
* The full report can be downloaded from the Merill Coroporation’s website.
