Southeast Asian M&A Deals in 2013 Highest on Record

January 20, 2014 Posted by ASEAN Briefing Reading Time: 2 minutes

SINGAPORE – According to a recent report from Mergermarket, during the first three quarters of 2013 Southeast Asia saw 273 merger & acquisition deals. Totaling US$49.8 billion, this was the highest result on record in terms of both deal value and deal count on Mergermarket’s records. This is up 4 percent compared to 2012’s Q1-3 result of US$47.9 billion.

The greatest increases came from Thailand and the Philippines: Thailand’s total deal value rocketed up a staggering 207.9 percent to US$16.1 billion, while the Philippines’ total deal value increased 35.5 percent to US$10.1 million.

Much of Thailand’s total deal value can be attributed to the acquisition of Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya by Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, in two separate transactions, worth US$7.6 billion alone. Japan remained the largest investor in the South East Asian region, with deals of US$10.8 billion, making up 66.4 percent of the region’s total deal value.

The Energy, Mining and Utilities sector accounted for the greatest market share in Southeast Asia with a total deal value of US$14.3 billion (a share of 28.7 percent), while Financial Services was close behind with a total deal value of US$13.3 billion (a share of 26.8 percent). The Industrials and Chemicals sector saw the greatest number of deals, with 47, but the deals were relatively small, amounting to only US$1.3 billion in total.

Singapore ranked as the most active bidder in Southeast Asia. The nation tendered 90 bids in 2013, amounting to US$17.4 billion. This represented a sizeable 74 percent jump from 2012. In contrast, Japan’s bids only totaled US$11.1 billion, though more of them ended in successful deals.

The wider Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) also did very well, according to Mergermarket’s 2013 M&A Trends Report. M&A deals in the region reached US$403.4 billion, up 15 percent from its result of US$350.9 billion in 2012, making it the region’s highest total deal value to date. This increase can be placed in context of a global decrease of 3.2 percent in M&A deal values, with the U.S. posting only a modest 3.8 percent increase (US$893.1 billion) and Europe posting a disappointing 12 percent drop (US$631.3 billion).

The Middle East and African region experienced the strongest increase in M&A deals, up 26.9 percent to US$64.2 billion, though in absolute figures, it still lags far behind the other regions.

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