January 20, 2002 Sunday
Mergers & acquisitions in Asia drop 46% in 2001
AFP
Hong Kong , 08-01-2002
The value of announced mergers and acquisition (M&As) activity in Asia excluding Japan and Australia plunged 46 per cent to $ 106 billion in 2001 compared with the previous year, Thomson Financial said on Tuesday.
The number of M&As for the year fell 10 per cent to 3,645 transactions from the year 2000, Thomson said.
It said completed transactions also slumped with 1,715 transactions with an aggregate value of $88.62 billion closing. This is a 41-per cent drop from $ 152.34 billion completed in 2000.
South Korea secured the top spot among other Asian targets announcing a total of $ 19.38 billion, a drop of 34.7 per cent from year 2000's $ 29.67 billion.
Many of the M&As deals arose thanks to the country's continued foreign investment liberalisation, combined with financial sector overhaul and reform, it said.
Singapore ranked second, with announced deals totaling $ 15.76 billion in which much of the total was in government-initiated bank consolidations.
Hong Kong was third with $ 15.53 billion, a 73.2-per cent decline from its $ 58 billion record in 2000.
Singapore was most active of all acquirer nations, finishing off with $ 20.17 billion transaction for the year. Malaysia was second with $ 13.08 billion and the United States with $ 12.1 billion.
Thomson Financial said the banking sector was the most active M&A industry, followed by business services and investment and commodity.
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