Singapore rakes in second highest M&A deals in SE Asia

Can you guess who topped the list with an $18 billion haul?

Malaysia led the SE Asia list for M&A deals with this impressive figure, but it still was down 21% from last year's $22.7 billion, according to preliminary results from Dealogic. It is also just a sliver ahead of the $17.1 billion total deals for second-ranked Singapore.

Rounding out the list are the Philippines at third with $10.4 billion and Thailand at fourth with $10.2 billion -- the second highest ever on record and 42% higher year-on-year.

Overall, SE Asia M&A total deals were virtually unchanged to $70.6 billion this year from $70.4 billion during the same period last year.

"Deal activity of 2192 is up 28% on the 2010 full year level of 1706 deals and has already surpassed previous annual record," said Dealogic.

"SE Asian M&A revenue has climbed to $381m, up 11% on the $344m generated in the same 2010 period and has overtaken historically full year levels. Despite the increase in M&A fees, ECM and DCM have seen a drop of 41% and 24% year-on-year to reach $390m and $242m, respectively. Pushes total core IB revenue to $934m in 2011 YTD, down 25% on the $1.2bn earned in 2010 YTD but still stands as the third highest YTD level on record,” it added.