Singapore M&A deal value crashed 24.8% to US$8b YTD

The number of M&A deals largely fell by 28%.

Overall Singapore merger and acquisition (M&A) activity dropped 24.8% to US$8b so far this year as the number of announced deals slowed down by 28%, Thomson Reuters revealed.

According to preliminary data, total cross-border deal activity dived 57.8% to US$3.3b compared to US$7.9b last year. “Singapore’s inbound M&A activity declined 79.4% in deal value from over a year ago, whilst outbound M&A activity decreased 47.6% from the comparative period last year,” it said.

However, domestic M&A activity grew 30.3% to US$1.2b, despite a 34.6% decrease in the number of domestic transactions. Financials (28.8%), Consumer Products & Services (24%) and Industrials (22.2%) sectors accounted for a combined 75% market share of Singapore’s domestic M&A activity.

Completed M&A deals involving Singapore also leapt 9.9% despite a 24.4% decline in the number of complete deals.

Thomson Reuters noted that the Real Estate sector took the lead and accounted for 35% of the market share worth US$2.8b, up 29.8%. Materials took second place with 13.1% market share as deals amounted to US$1b. Financials captured 10.7% market share worth US$857m, a 46.6% decline in value from a year ago, as the number of deals slowed down 33.3%.

Meanwhile, buyside financial sponsor M&A activity in Singapore dropped 91.6% to US$53.1m despite a 66.7% increase in the number of PE-backed acquisitions.

Private equity(PE)-backed M&A activity targeted the High Technology sector, led by the acquisition of an undisclosed minority stake in Tyrb Pte Ltd, a Singapore- based reproducer of software, for $39.2m (US$30m) by Makara Innovation Fund, jointly owned by the Singaporean state-owned The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore and Makara Capital Pte Ltd.

Meanwhile, M&A advisory fees from completed transactions in Singapore rose by 4.9% to US$99.1m so far. “JP Morgan takes the lead in the fee rankings for completed M&A deals in Singapore with US$43.5m in related fees, capturing 43.9% wallet share so far this year. Credit Suisse and Bank of America Merrill Lynch followed behind with 30.8% and 6.1% wallet share, respectively,” Thomson Reuters said.