Tech M&As in SEA shot up in 2022

It’s no secret that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) intensify in times of crisis. While the Covid-19 pandemic started to cause extreme and sudden disruptions in markets in 2020, it was only in inflation-ridden 2022 that M&A counts in Southeast Asia reached their highest point in almost a decade.

According to Tech in Asia’s cheat sheet, both the number of deals and the total value of M&As in the region ramped up significantly in 2022 from the previous year. However, mean and median deal sizes remained low, indicating a spurt in smaller deals.

Ernst & Young suggests that intensified M&As in the Asia Pacific last year showed that companies across sectors were trying to keep up with “rapidly evolving” consumer preferences by merging with other entities. Other reasons for transforming their businesses were digital disruption and environment, social, and governance (ESG) issues.

In Southeast Asia, ecommerce remained the vertical that saw the most deals in 2022, though fintech had also been catching up quickly over the past six years. Singapore and Indonesia remained far and away the strongest markets in terms of M&A activity.

As the tech winter continues and fear of a global recession looms, the region may expect another strong year for M&As.

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