Asia-Pacific out-bound M&A hits record high of $313 billion in 2015: Report

NEW DELHI: Asia-Pacific out-bound merger and acquisitions touched a record high of $ 313.4 billion in 2015, and the outlook for this year looks bullish with India likely to remain a hot target, a report says.

According to multinational law firm Baker and McKenzie's quarterly cross-border M&A Index, out-bound M&A activities from the Asia Pacific in the fourth quarter of 2015 registered an 11 per cent year-on-year increase to $ 71.8 billion, pushing the year's total to $ 313.4 billion on the back of 1,268 deals.

China, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore are the top five most active acquirers in 2015 by deal volume among Asia-Pacific countries.

The report noted that India and Australia emerged as the favourite destinations for the US and European companies while China continued to lead the pack with 254 deals worth $ 42.3 billion in 2015.

"India's technology sector was particularly attractive to foreign buyers last year, rising to 44 deals, including transactions such as US-based IT outsourcing firm Virtusa's acquisition of a 53 per cent stake in India software company Polaris for $ 350 million," the report said.

Going forward, the report said the M&A outlook looks promising as the transactional activity in the Asia-Pacific region will continue to rise from 2016 to 2018 on the back of the region's strong economic fundamentals.

"Technology is likely to remain a hot sector for cross- border M&A activity, be it for China because of the government policy, or for India because of the country's strong culture of innovation, growing educated middle class, and the proliferation of IT outsourcing companies," the report added.

Anne-Marie Allgrove, Global Chair of Baker & McKenzie's Information Technology & Communications Group, noted that a lot more deals in the FinTech space could be expected as the trend towards convergence between technology and other traditional industries continues.