Asia Pacific to lead global M&A growth

The latest Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor report – an indicator of future M&A deal volumes – found that while M&A deals in the Asia Pacific will increase by 16 per cent, Australia is experiencing slower growth.

Intralinks vice president of strategy and product marketing Philip Whitchelo said Australia is experiencing slower growth in year-to-date inbound and domestic early-stage M&A activity compared to the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

“The reason for this is that the backwash from the slowdown in global demand for commodities such as iron ore and coal, and the global oversupply of oil, is still impacting Australian inbound and domestic M&A sectors," he said.

Mr Whitchelo noted that the majority of Australia's M&A deals for 2015 will come from the consumer, real estate and retail sectors.

Although domestic M&A activity is slowing, outbound activity is increasing, the report found.

“Australian corporates have been on an international acquisition spree so far this year, with the number of announced outbound M&A deals up by nine per cent,” Mr Whitchelo said.

“This is doubly impressive given that last year, outbound M&A deal announcements rose by 14 per cent.”

Mr Whitchelo said the highest number of announced outbound deals were in sectors such as high technology, materials, financials, transportation and infrastructure.

Globally, Intralinks expects M&A activity to increase by 11 per cent.

“2015 will be a banner year for global M&A activity, with the number of deals predicted to break the records set in 2007,” Mr Whitchelo said.