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.