Deal Drivers: Hong Kong 2020

A spotlight on mergers and acquisitions trends (January - May 2020)

In partnership with Mergermarket

At first glance, the M&A data for Hong Kong between January and May looks surprisingly solid considering how early the territory was hit by COVID-19.

However, a closer look reveals that half the deals in Q1 2020 were announced in January, while only 8 and 7 were logged in February and March, respectively.

Early Q2 2020 data reflects a further downturn, but there are still a number of reasons to be optimistic about Hong Kong due to its burgeoning biotech hub and the consumer sector contributing to Q1's second biggest transaction overall, worth almost US$2 billion.

Highlights from the report include:

• Property is king - the largest deal of Q1 2020 in Hong Kong was in the real estate sector, worth over US$6bn.
• The next most valuable sectors are consumer and technology, media & telecom, but in terms of deal volume, financial services and business services take the top 2 spots.
• Companies in the pharma, medical and biotech space are attracting more attention in Hong Kong, making this SAR the world's second largest centre for biotech fundraising.
• Sector watch: Hong Kong's consumer sector opened the year with almost a 24% increase in value quarter-on-quarter

Get your exclusive copy of Deal Drivers: Hong Kong 2020 and learn about the activities and trends that are driving M&A deals as Hong Kong gets ahead of the curve in readiness for a new normal in the second half of the year.