A total of 2,765 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals were announced in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region during January to May 2023, a decline of 16.3% compared to the 3,304 M&A deals announced during the same period in the previous year, finds GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database revealed that the corresponding disclosed value of these M&A deals also declined by 39.3% from $284.9 billion during January-May 2022 to $173 billion during January-May 2023.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “In line with the global trend, several key markets in the APAC region witnessed subdued M&A activity owing to the macroeconomic challenges and recession fears. These factors seem to have had a dent in deal-making sentiments for the region.”

The decline in the overall M&A activity in the Asia-Pacific region can be primarily attributed to setbacks experienced by key markets such as China, Japan, and India. These three markets, which account for over half of the total number of M&A deals in the region, played a significant role in driving the decline. The M&A deals volume for China, Japan and India year-on-year (YoY) declined by 9%, 16.8%, 22.2%, respectively, during January-May 2023.

Meanwhile, other markets in the region such as Australia, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and New Zealand also saw the number of M&A deals YoY decreasing by 13.7%, 21.6%, 5.5%, 34.5%, 27.5%, and 29.8%, respectively, during the review period.

Note: Historic data may change in case some deals get added to previous months because of a delay in disclosure of information in the public domain.