Overseas acquisitions from Singapore at its highest since 2007

It's up 21% to US$19.5 billion.

According to Thomson Reuters, foreign acquisitions targeting Singapore-based companies reached a record high of US$27.2 billion, up three-times compared to 2011, driven by mega deals related to the competing bids for Fraser & Neave and acquisition of Asia Pacific Breweries by Heineken.

Here's more from Thomson Reuters:

Acquisitions from Thailand captured majority of Singapore’s inbound activity with US$13.8 billion representing 50.8% of the market share. Meanwhile, Netherlands registered US$6.6 billion (24.1% market share) of announced deals followed by Japan with US$3.0 billion (10.9% market share).

The bulk of the inbound deals targeted Singapore’s Consumer Staples with 17 deals worth US$23.1 billion, a huge upsurge from last year’s 9 deals worth US$181.4 million. Consumer Staples accounted for 84.8% of Singapore’s inbound M&A, followed by Materials (6.0%) and the Financials sector (3.9%).

Outbound Acquisitions Highest Since 2007
Despite the 13.6% decline in deal count, overseas acquisitions from Singapore companies reached US$19.5 billion so far this year, a 21.2% increase compared to 2011, and the highest annual period since 2007 when volume spiked to US$45.4 billion.

Majority of Singapore’s outbound acquisitions was in the Financials industry (US$8.3 billion) with 42.8% market share, a 32.6 increase in market share points.

DBS Group Holdings agreed to acquire a 67.4% interest in Indonesia’s Bank Danamon in a deal worth US$4.97 billion alongside an announced mandatory tender offer to acquire the remaining 32.6% stake for US$2.4 billion. With the combined value of these two bids reaching US$7.4 billion, Singapore’s overseas acquisitions in Indonesia reached a record high of US$11.6 billion, or 59.2% of the outbound activity.

However, Australia and China saw the most number of acquisitions from Singapore with 47 and 46 announced deals, respectively, so far this year.