Increased Chinese Presence and Other Developments in the Southeast Asian Cross-Border M&A Landscape

This viewpoint focuses on the M&A landscape of Southeast Asia. Among the key findings for 2017 are:

• M&A flows into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are growing and when measured as a share of the region’s overall GDP, they have kept pace.
• Chinese buyers participated in four of the six largest cross-border private equity deals in Southease Asia from 2014 through July 2017
• Thailand made four major acquisitions in Vietnam totaling about $2.8 billion.
• Thailand’s push into Vietnam offers a glimpse of what may be to come as a broader se ot ASEAN countries is expanding intra-regional cross-border M&A flows.