Year in review: Here are the ten biggest mergers and acquisitions in Singapore for 2014

The real estate sector dominates the list.

Government-owned investment companies Temasek and GIC were involved in five of the top ten biggest M&A deals in Singapore this year.

According to data released by American Appraisal, GIC’s acquisition of IndCor Properties from Blackstone Group was the biggest M&A deal this year, with a value of $10.6b (US$8.1b).

Temasek’s acquisition of a minority stake in AS Watson Holdings came in as a far second at $7.44b (US$5.67b), while OCBC’s takeover of family-owned Wing Hang Bank came in third with a value of $6.6b (US$5b).

Temasek’s acquisition of a majority stake in agribusiness giant Olam is the fourth-biggest deal with a value of $3.34b (US$2.54b), while CapitaLand’s privatisation of CapitaMalls Asia was a very close fifth with a value of $3.31b (US$2.52b).

Frasers Centrepoint’s acquisition of Australand was the sixth-largest deal at $2.1b (US$2.76b), followed by GIC’s acquisition of Pacific Century Place Marunouchi for $2.23b ($1.7b).

The $1.7b (US$1.3b) acquisition of Venari Resources by GIC and Temasek, among others, was the eighth-biggest deal this year. This was followed by Keppel REIT’s $1.3b (US$966.7m) acquisition of a minority stake in Central Boulevard Development.

The tenth-largest deal is Fragmented Industry Exchange’s $919.5m (US$700m) acquisition of HotApps International.

Five out of the ten deals are in the real estate sector. Other sectors included retail, financial services, consumer staples, energy, and technology.