Divers reports that track corporate deal-making have confirmed a epidemic slowdown in 2017, but one country has bucked the trend, according to advisory concern Duff & Phelps.
Malaysia recorded $17.57 billion worth of fusions and acquisitions from 408 deals in 2017 — the highest level in five years, the modern development Duff & Phelps’s Transaction Trail report showed on Tuesday. Termination year, Malaysia sealed 375 transactions worth $14.25 billion.
The dilate in both M&A volume and value in the Southeast Asian country contrasted with the slowdown in worldwide activity, Duff & Phelps said. The firm’s data show there were 36,718 goings-on valued at $2.82 trillion in 2017, down from 40,305 reckon withs worth $3.61 trillion the previous year.
“Globally, there’s been a bit of a slowdown in M&A handle activity, PE (private equity) and VC (venture capital) investments as well. We’ve glimpsed a bit of slowdown in China as well but we seem to be seeing an increase in Southeast Asia,” Srividya Gopalakrishnan, regulating director at Duff & Phelps, told CNBC.
Companies from China and Hong Kong, cladding government restrictions on capital outflows, have turned to Southeast Asia for occupation opportunities, Gopalakrishnan added. That has helped to fuel activities in the locality and is expected to continue into the next year.
Chinese and Hong Kong flocks last year “did a lot of global acquisitions,” she said. “Now they seem to be looking profuse at Southeast Asia, because the deal sizes aren’t that big but they allay give them great impetus for their own growth.”