Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deal activity in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region was seen to be  inconsistent during Q4 of 2020, stated GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Similar to most of the APAC countries, China also witnessed inconsistent activity. However, it continues to be a key global growth engine as global investors see this Asian country as an attractive investment destination with the further opening up of policies, 

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Databases reveals that a total of 1,835 M&A deals were announced in the APAC region during Q4 2020.

The count of announced M&A deals in the APAC region grew by 1.9% from 632 in October 2020 to 644 in November 2020 before reducing by 13.2% to 559 in December 2020.

China, a leading APAC market, held 29.1% share in the region’s M&A volume during Q4. It also had its share of ups and downs. However, its share of deal volume continued to remain around 30% during Q4.

The count of M&A deals in China grew by 10.7% from 178 in October to 197 in November before reducing by 19.3% to 159 in December.

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Furthermore, the  share of deal volume in China was at 28.2%, 30.6% and 28.4% during October, November and December, respectively.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “There has been a clear divergence in M&A activity between China and other APAC countries. Apart from domestic M&A, China also managed to see sizeable inbound acquisitions with foreign players investing in acquiring Chinese assets.”

Chinese firms such as Xuzhou State Investment & Environmental Protection Energy, State Power Investment Corporation Guizhou Jinyuan Weining Energy and Beijing ByteDance Technology undertook several acquisitions in the home market during Q4, while overseas firms such as SK Hynix (South Korea), Peak Fintech Group (Canada) and Triumph Lead (Singapore) Pte. Ltd were also seen eyeing assets in China.

In terms of deal volume, Australia, Japan, India and South Korea were the other top four markets. Although deal activity stayed inconsistent across most of these key markets, Japan witnessed steady decline in deal volume during Q4. Japan also experienced steady decline in the share of deal volume. On the other hand, Australia stood as an exception, witnessing steady increase in its share of deal volume.

Bose concluded: “Even though the M&A deal activity witnessed fluctuating fortunes during the fourth quarter on account of the uncertain and volatile macro-economic backdrop, China is well placed to drive the growth of the APAC region in 2021.”