S. Korea leads Asia in mergers

S. Korea leads Asia in mergers

SINGAPORE (DPA): South Korea led Asia in merger and acquisitions during 1999 with more than US$19.4 billion worth of announced deals followed by China and Hong Kong, findings showed on Monday.

The preliminary results compiled by Thomson Financial Securities Data said South Korea was spurred on by the restructuring of its family-owned conglomerates, or chaebols. Market share amounted to 23.1 per cent with 237 deals.

China came in second with $13.6 billion worth of transactions, an 83.9 percent gain from the previous year.

Third-place Hong Kong posted a 48.8 percent rise in the volume of mergers and acquisitions to $13.4 billion.

"These figures show that mergers and acquisitions are now being taken seriously by Asian companies, both as a means of raising capital and as a way to consolidate overcrowded industries," a financial analyst said.

Worldwide, the volume of mergers and acquisitions also swelled to hit $3.1 trillion at the end of November, more than the record 2.5 trillion for the previous year.

The reported noted Europe's new single currency launched a flood of cross-border combinations.

Compared with 1998 at the height of the regional economic crisis, the volume of transactions in Asia this year registered 43.5 percent growth.