Asia Pacific 2019 League Tables: China Deals Plunge Further; Japan, Singapore on the Rise
Strong deal flow in Korea made Kim & Chang one of the top M&A legal advisers in the region.
January 07, 2020 at 01:56 PM
3 minute read
Photo: Shutterstock.com
Mergers and acquisitions activity in the Asia Pacific continued to drop to a six-year low with China deals further affected by geopolitical tensions. Korea and Japan deals, meanwhile, saw strong momentum.
Overall M&A activity in the Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, totaled $565.3 billion in 2019, the lowest level since 2013, according to data compiled by Mergermarket. The region's share in the global M&A market shrank 17% in 2019 from 20.4% a year earlier. Deals involving mainland China and Hong Kong, negatively affected by the U.S.-China trade and economic disputes, totaled $294.5 billion, accounting for 8.8% of the total global value, down 27.6% from 2018.
Meanwhile, South Korean deals hit a decade high according to Bloomberg data. Deal value was significantly boosted in the fourth quarter when several multibillion-dollar deals were announced. Notably, SoftBank Corp. launched a joint venture with Korean tech company Naver Corp. and merged SoftBank-owned Yahoo Japan and Naver-owned Line Corp. in a $30 billion deal. In December, Korean online delivery services operator Woowa Brothers Corp. was acquired by German rival Delivery Hero S.E. in a $4 billion deal.
The Korean deals helped put Kim & Chang, the country's largest law firm, in the top five of the region's M&A legal advisers in 2019, according to three major ranking organizations. Kim & Chang worked on both of the big Korean deals. The Korean firm also topped last year's M&A legal adviser ranking by Refinitiv and was No. 3 and 4 by Mergermarket and Bloomberg. The rest of the rankings varied because of differences in methodologies.
The Mergermarket report also noted the rise of Singapore M&As. Continued political unrest in Hong Kong helped turn investors' attention to the Southeast Asian financial hub. Total M&A value in Singapore hit $35.3 billion in 2019, more than doubling the amount from 2018. Singaporean developer CapitaLand Ltd.'s January 2019 acquisition of sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd.'s logistics and industrial assets was one of the biggest deals in the region.
Japan's M&A activity continued to outperform the overall Asia Pacific region last year. According to Mergermarket data, deals involving Japanese parties totaled $75.4 billion, up nearly 60% year-on-year and accounting for 11.8% of the overall deal value in the region—the largest share since 2012. In addition to the Line Corp.-Yahoo Japan merger, Japanese brewer Asahi Group Holdings Ltd.'s $11.3 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch InBev's Australia business is also one of the largest M&As in the region.
In October, Law.com's The Asian Lawyer reported that Japan has seen both outbound and inbound deal activity pick up in recent years.
Related Stories:
Japan M&A Activity Ramps Up, Prompting Movement for M&A Lawyers
US Duo Pick Up Roles on Multibillion-Dollar SoftBank Deal
Sullivan & Cromwell, Latham & Watkins on $4B Korea Ecommerce Deal
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