Malaysia to benefit from improvements in M&A activities

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will reap tremendous benefits from the expected improvements in the merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in Asia-Pacific with in-bound investments likely to increase this year.

Malaysian Mergers and Acquisitions Association (MMAA) vice-president, Kong Meng Yap, said the low ringgit exchange rate, stable commodity prices, as well as China’s Belt and Road initiative and its improving consumption-driven economy were among the factors that would contribute to the positive outlook.

“This year we are seeing an increase in the level of M&A activities. At least in the fourfive years, we are looking at most of the deal volume coming from the consumer-driven businesses, manufacturing, infrastructure and construction, as well as subsegments linked to infrastructure and construction,” he said.

Kong was speaking to reporters at the Intralinks-MMAA’s panel discussion on trends and outlook for M&A activities in Malaysia here yesterday.

He said technology, media and telecommunications, as well as healthcare sectors could also potentially gain attraction for M&A activities in Malaysia.

On investment, he said, the main inbound sources would likely come from Europe and North Asia, particularly from Japan, China and South Korea.

According to Intralinks Inc’s latest Deal Flow Predictor (DFP) report that covers a quarterly basis prediction of future trends in the global M&A market, the M&A actitivities in Asia Pacific rose 44 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter 2016.

Intralinks Asia Pacific Senior Vice President, Allan Robertson, said M&A activities in Southeast Asia saw a 49 per cent increase with Malaysia as one of the most vibrant economies in the region.

“Southeast Asia is actually helping to drive that. We see it is still positive (for this year),” he said, adding technology was the most crucial driver to revamp the M&A landscape.

In conjunction with the event, Intralinks and MMAA signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate and promote the best M&A practices and technology in Malaysia.

Under the agreement, MMAA members will be able to leverage on Intralinks Dealnexus, which is the world’s largest deal platform for connecting buy-side and sell-side dealmakers.

He said Intralinks would also share with MMAA members its DFP reports which contained extensive research and knowledge about the M&A trends in Asia Pacific.

Intralinks is a global software and services provider of content management and collaboration solutions company.