Singapore M&A value at its highest in two years

Overall Singapore M&A activity hit $84.1b so far this year.

The value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving Singaporean companies rose 81.4% QoQ to $44.6b (US$33.1b) in Q3.

According to Thomson Reuters, M&A value rose despite the 33.9% drop in the number of announced deals.

This boosted overall Singapore M&A activity YTD to $84.1b (US$62.5b), higher 31.7% YoY, even if the number of deals softened by 8.2%.

This makes it the highest first nine months period for deal making activity in terms of value in two years.

The average M&A deals size increased to $192.5m (US$143m), higher than last year's $143.9m (US$106.9m).

This year, 15 deals were made above US$1b creating a total value of $48.3b (US$35.9b). This included Singapore Airlines' (SIA) $21.5b (US$16b) jumbo deal.

Here's more from Thomson Reuters:

Total cross-border deal activity amounted to US$40.2b, a 55.0% increase over the same period last year (US$25.9b).

Singapore’s inbound M&A activity grew 130.2% in deal value from over a year ago, while outbound M&A activity dropped 8.5% from the comparative period last year.

Domestic M&A activity improved and reached US$11.3 billion, a 12.3% increase in deal value from first nine months of 2016, despite a 15.3% decrease in number of domestic transactions.

Real Estate (40.4 %) and Technology (24.9%) sectors accounted for a combined 65.3% market share of Singapore’s domestic M&A activity.

Completed M&A deals involving Singapore amounted to US$54.6 billion so far this year, a 74.1% increase in value compared to the first nine months of 2016 (US$31.4 billion), despite a 10.8% slow down in number of complete deals.