'Asia-Pacific region sees $21 billion of energy,mining and utilities deals'

NEW DELHI: The Asia Pacific region, including India, has seen a total of $ 21 billion-worth of energy, mining and utilities deals since the beginning of this year, global deal tracking firm merger-market said.

According to mergermarket, Asia-Pacific has seen $ 21 billion-worth of energy, mining and utilities deals since the beginning of the year, accounting for 24.3 per cent of the total M&A transactions in the region.

The energy sub-sector recorded 32 deals worth $ 13.7 billion in Asia-Pacific from the start of the year.

Mining acquisitions in the region totalled 23 deals worth $ 6.8 billion, while utilities saw three transactions worth $ 452 million, accounting for 19.2 per cent and 9 per cent of the total amount last year, respectively.

A breakdown in terms of value shows that 55.7 per cent of the total deal value belonged to China, followed by Singapore 16.4 per cent, Kazakhastan 12.2 per cent, Australia 7.6 per cent, while India's share was just 2 per cent.

China National Petroleum Corporation's $ 4.2 billion investment into Eni Spa's East Africa oil and gas exploration subsidiary was the largest EMU transaction so far in 2013.

Goldman Sachs and Bank of China International Holdings topped the Mergermarket Financial Advisors League Table in Asia-Pacific by value and number of deals, respectively.

The report further added that in cross-border deals, Asia-Pacific countries showed a strong local advantage over Europe and the US for the acquisition of resources within the region.

With rich neighbouring resources, China, Japan and Australia have all been acquisitive for energy, mining and utilities assets beyond their own country during 2012 and continued expanding their footprint with intra-regional acquisitions in 2013.