Asia Pacific M&A Review 2016

Herbert Smith Freehills is pleased to announce the publication of its third annual Asia Pacific Mergers and Acquisitions Review, offering insights into trends in Asia Pacific from our Mergers and Acquisitions experts across the region.

This year’s Review considers M&A performance in 2015 and looks forward to prospects for 2016 across Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. We also provide an industry focus, looking at developments in private equity, energy, mining and telecommunications media and technology.

Some of the key themes we saw in 2015 include:

• Following a general increase in deal volumes in 2014, we saw a sustained level of deal volumes and a significant increase in the value of announced transactions in 2015 across the Asia Pacific region. This was particularly evident in Australia, China, Hong Kong and South Korea.
• Many countries across the Asia Pacific region saw the return of the mega deal. We expect this trend to continue in 2016, particularly as companies look to take advantage of cheap funding and opportunities to acquire assets for competitive prices.
• Despite predictions to the contrary, we witnessed an increase in Asia Pacific M&A activity in the mining sector. There was an increase in asset recycling as some assets of major mining houses approached the end of their mine life. We expect this trend of divestment by major miners to continue.

Looking ahead, we anticipate the following for the Asia Pacific market in 2016:

• Investors to be presented with numerous and varied investment opportunities across the Asia Pacific region, including in Australia as a result of the lower Australian dollar and in SOEs in China and South Korea.
• The uptake in new technologies is increasing valuations and profitability for technology suppliers, leading to a new wave of IPOs and M&A activity in the TMT sector.
• It is expected that deal volume in 2016 will be driven by the financial services, TMT, property and energy and resources sectors across the Asia Pacific region.

For a copy of the guide please email asia.publications@hsf.com