Australian-involved M&A activity is down more than 50 percent compared to last year’s figures according to the latest Thomson Reuters M&A Review.

In the first nine months of the year Australian M&A amounted to US$63.8 billion, a 57.5 percent decrease on the same time last year. This is the lowest deal value recorded since 2004.

However, Asian based M&A increased during this period by 6.8 percent to US$342.3 billion. “Asia’s Mergers & Acquisitions market grew in the first nine months of 2012 despite a global trend which saw a significant drop in activity across most major M&A markets,’ said Herbert Smith Freehills partner Andrew Pike. “The fact that we are still seeing growth in Asian markets, despite the tough conditions, is indicative of a growing shift towards Asia as a financial hub and the rebalancing of world economies.”

Former Australasian firm Freehills and UK firm Herbert Smith merged last week to create a new global firm, and the largest fully financially integrated law firm in Asia Pacific. Freehills topped the M&A legal advisor league table for announced deals in the first nine months of the year. However, in terms of completed deals in that period the firm is ranked number four, behind King & Wood Mallesons, Gilbert + Tobin and Ashurst.

New international arrival Ashurst was ranked second in terms of announced deals while fellow new global law firm, King & Wood Mallesons was ranked third.

Asian powerhouse China increased its M&A activity in the third quarter of the year compared to the same time last year. “China is still a driving force behind the growth of Asia’s M&A markets. In the third quarter of this year we saw a 34 percent jump in outbound investment from China compared to the previous quarter, proving that China is still very much focused in its pursuit of international assets,” said Pike.
Across Asia, energy and power companies have been the most sought after targets, accounting for US$58.7 billion in activity, followed closely by the materials sector which reached US$51.5 billion in value of deals. Financial services was the third most active sector with US$40.7 billion worth of deals over the past nine months.

Private equity-backed transactions to date are down seven percent on where they were at the same time last year and have so far accounted for only 12 percent of M&A activity in 2012.

Australian or New Zealand announced M&A legal league table

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