Asia-Pacific M&A deal values at record high in 2014: Mergermarket

MERGER and acquisition (M&A) deals have already hit its record high in 2014 even though the year is not yet complete.

According to Mergermarket, a record has already been set for Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) M&A deal values that has surpassed all other annual totals with US$427 billion worth of deals. This total value of M&A deals targeting Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) companies at the end of the third quarter of 2014 is already 3.6 per cent above the whole of 2013's peak, chalking up the highest annual total on Mergermarket record.

The M&A intelligence firm revealed that the third quarter was also the sixth consecutive quarter to post total deal value higher than US$100 billion, even though there were signs of the M&A activity slowing down. The US$134.8 billion worth of deals in Q3 2014 was 15.4 per cent higher than the corresponding quarter last year, but dropped almost a quarter (22.8 per cent) from the second quarter of 2014, it said in its Global/Regional M&A Trend Report for Q3 2014.

There have been more than 700 transactions every quarter since the fourth quarter of 2013 - an extra 351 deals have been announced between Q1 and Q3 2014 compared to the same time last year.

Attention from European companies targeting Asia-Pacific looks to be slowing down with a drop in value for the last two consecutive quarters, but the year-to-date value from the region (US$30.6 billion) has already reached the highest annual total since 2011.

However, Asia-Pacific companies also appeared to be more focused on deals within the region as Asia-Pacific's outbound deal value has slowed this year after a rebound in 2013. The US$56.7 billion worth of deals, down 11.5 per cent from the same time last year, could be the fourth lowest annual value in a decade, Mergermarket said.

The report also showed that Morgan Stanley topped the financial adviser league table by value with US$81.3 billion worth of deals, increasing 82.8 per cent from the same period in 2013 at US$ 44.5 billion.