Mergers and Acquisitions in Russian Oil Industry

Mergers and acquisitions are not a recent phenomena and its growing activity over years can be explained by companies desire to achieve corporate diversity and growth and renew market position at a speed which could not be achievable through the internal development. The increasing number of M&A activity not only domestically, but also on an international scale, became possible due to globalization, liberalization of markets, declining trade barriers, diversification of many industries and technological improvement. Nowadays, Russian M&A market is at the stage of intensive development and at the same time improvement of investment process with participation not only domestic but also foreign players can be noticed due to positive changes in legislation, strong corporate governance and increase in business transparency. Due to recourse based focus of Russian economy, oil industry, plays a key role in facilitating international M&A activity through influence on the economic development of the country. One of the intensive way to achieve significant results and become comparable with other developed countries, is foreign capitals in development and realization of the international oil and gas projects, which will allow to increase volume of investment and hence to raise efficiency of use of natural resources. The analysis of situation in M&A activity in Russian oil industry, through the recent merger of Russian and the UK companies, describes it as a bright example of European and Russian businesses integration, which gives an opportunity for cross-border entrance with a chance for diversification, solidity and stability in future results. An opportunity to examine M&A activity in Russian oil industry and analyze the effectiveness of this strategy as a prime mechanism of companies competitive activity can be a useful instrument of determining potentials and future competitiveness of Russian economy