Tariff uncertainty pummels South-east Asia’s private equity dealmaking in H1; caution likely to reign for rest of 2025

[SINGAPORE] Private equity (PE) deal value in South-east Asia plunged by nearly half in the first six months of 2025, as macro uncertainties slowed dealmaking after US President Donald Trump’s tariffs dashed the optimism that greeted the year.

Data provided to The Business Times by EY ahead of its report publication showed that the total value of PE investments in the region fell 46.6 per cent in the first half of this year to around US$3.1 billion, compared with that in the same period in 2024. This was despite a 12.5 per cent rise in the number of deals to 36.

As for PE-backed exits, total value slid 40.6 per cent to about US$1.1 billion, along with a 7.1 per cent drop in the number of transactions to 13.