Singapore M&A activity at a snail's pace in Q1

Value of announced M&A reached US$7.7b.

It is a slow start so far for Singapore mergers & acquisitions, as values went down 21% compared to the same period last year.

According to the latest data from Thomson Reuters, the value of announced M&A involving Singaporean companies reached US$7.7b, in contrast to last year's US$9.7b. This came alongside a 38.1% drop in the number of announced deals.

"This is the slowest start for overall Singapore M&A activity in terms of value since first quarter of 2013," said Thomson Reuters.

The average M&A deal size for disclosed deals grew to US$88.1m compared to US$69.3m in the first quarter of 2016, as deal activity involving Singaporean companies this year witnessed more deals above US$500m compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the total cross-border deal activity amounted to US$4.9b, a 30.1% decline over the same period last year (US$6.9b). Singapore’s inbound M&A activity fell 40% in deal value from over a year ago, whilst outbound M&A activity dropped 26.8% from the comparative period in 2016.

It was no different in terms of domestic M&A, which slowed to US$1.1b, a 17.1% decrease in deal value from last year. Real Estate (31.5%), Healthcare (29.4%), and Materials (12.9%) sectors accounted for a 73.8% combined market share for Singapore’s domestic M&A activity.