A total of 274 deals were announced in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region during the week ended 10 May 2020, which is a decrease of 28.8% over 385 deals announced during the previous week, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that the deal volume during the week remained below the Q1 2020 and April 2020 weekly average levels.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData comments: “Deal activity in the APAC region started showing signs of recovery during past few weeks and this decline came after three consecutive weeks of growth in deal volume. The decline could be attributed to media reports of second wave of the COVID-19 attack in china (the key market in the region) triggering fears.”

China experienced 45.9% decline in deal volume during the week compared to the previous week. Deal activity also decreased in other key markets such as South Korea, Japan and India, which witnessed decrease in deal volume by 37%, 64.7% and 23.1%, respectively. However, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia witnessed growth in deal activity.

Sectors such as healthcare (including pharmaceuticals and medical equipment), retail and travel and tourism witnessed decline in number of announced deals during the week compared to the previous week.

The volume of key deal types such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), venture financing, debt offerings, equity offerings and partnerships decreased by 15.8%, 34.4%, 23%, 37% and 47.1%, respectively, during the week compared to the previous week, while the number of private equity deals increased by 42.9%.