Singapore M&A activity drops 20.3% to US$22.4b

It’s Singapore’s slowest first half period for deal making activity since 2013.

There is an improvement in mergers & acquisitions in Singapore for the second quarter of the year as deals involving Singaporean companies reached US$11.8 billion ($16.3b), a 10.4% sequential increase from first quarter of 2017 despite a 16.3% drop in the number of announced deals.

According to the data released by Thomson Reuters, this brings overall Singapore M&A activity to US$22.4 billion, down 20.3% compared to the first half of 2016, as the number of deals declined 23.4%.

"This is the slowest first half period for Singapore deal making activity in terms of value since 2013. The average M&A deal size for disclosed deals dropped to US$89.8 million compared to US$93.6 million in the first half of 2016, as Singapore-involved M&A activity this year lacked deals US$3-billion and above compared to two deals during the same period last year which had a combined value of US$7.0 billion," Thomson Reuters.

Meanwhile, total cross-border deal activity amounted to US$13.7 billion, a 12.7% decline over the same period last year (US$15.7 billion). Inbound M&A activity fell 16.7% in deal value from over a year ago, while outbound M&A activity dropped 9.7% from the comparative period last year.

Domestic M&A activity also slowed down to US$3.8 billion, a 41.0% decrease in deal value from first half of 2016, with the number of domestic transactions down by 30.3%. Real Estate (68.3 %) and Healthcare (11.0%) sectors accounted for a combined 79.3% market share of Singapore’s domestic M&A activity.

Completed M&A deals involving Singapore amounted to US$33.33 billion so far this year, an 83.7% increase in value compared to the first half of 2016 (US$18.1 billion).