A total of 1,161 deals (comprising mergers & acquisitions [M&A], private equity, and venture financing deals) were announced in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region during May 2022, which is a decline of 12.7% over the 1,330 deals announced during the previous month, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that this is the second consecutive month-on-month decline in deal activity in the region. Deal volume in the APAC region during the month was also lower than the monthly average of the first quarter of 2022.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Deal activity in the APAC region has been bearing the brunt of dampened deal-making sentiment on the back of rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in some of the key markets such as China and looming recession fears.”

Several key APAC markets witnessed a fall in deal activity. For instance, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand experienced decline in deal volume by 14.8%, 42.7%, 2.3%, 9.9%, 36.4%, 40% and 42.9%, respectively, in May compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, markets such as India, Australia and Hong Kong emerged as notable exceptions with growth of 3.2%, 15.2% and 21.7%, respectively.

Deal types under the coverage also witnessed decline in deal volume in May 2022 compared to the previous month. The number of M&A, private equity and venture financing deals decreased by 15.5%, 21.8% and 9.9%, respectively.