Asia Pacific to lead global M&A growth

Taylee Lewis

The Asia-Pacific region is set to experience its strongest year of M&A activity – expecting growth of 16 per cent, according to Intralinks. 

The latest Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor (DFP) report – an indicator of future M&A deal volumes – found that while M&A deals in the Asia Pacific will increase by 16 per cent, Australia is experiencing slower growth.

Intralinks vice president of strategy and product marketing Philip Whitchelo said: “We are seeing slower growth in year-to-date inbound and domestic early-stage M&A activity in Australia than the rest of APAC.”

“The reason for this is that the backwash from the slowdown in global demand for commodities such as iron ore and coal, and the global oversupply of oil, is still impacting Australian inbound and domestic M&A sectors.”

Mr Whitchelo pointed out that the majority of Australia’s M&A deals for 2015 will come from the consumer, real estate and retail sectors.

Although domestic M&A activity is slowing, outbound activity is increasing, the report found.

“Australian corporates have been on an international acquisition spree so far this year, with the number of announced outbound M&A deals up by nine per cent,” Mr Whitchelo said.

“This is doubly impressive given that last year, outbound M&A deal announcements rose by 14 per cent.”

Mr Whitchelo said the highest number of announced outbound deals were in sectors such as high technology, materials, financials, transportation and infrastructure.

Globally, Intralinks expects M&A activity to increase by 11 per cent.

“2015 will be a banner year for global M&A activity, with the number of deals predicted to break the records set in 2007,” Mr Whitchelo said.

InvestorDaily