Hong Kong offshore acquirers shelled out a whopping USD13.7b in Q2
Is the market turning more stable?
According to a report, the second quarter of 2013 has shown positive signs of a gradual return to more stable transactional activity following several years of volatility.
Renewed confidence in offshore transactions and an increase in deals between Q1 and Q2 2013, have been highlighted in the latest Offshore-i Report released today by Appleby, one of the world’s largest providers of offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services.
The latest edition of Appleby‘s quarterly report, which provides data and insight on merger and acquisition activity in major offshore financial centres, focuses on the second quarter of 2013 and clearly indicates acquisition activity led by offshore incorporated companies rebounded following a weak first quarter with 426 deals with a cumulative value of USD34bn, up 11% by volume and 29% by value.
Hong Kong acquirers spent by far the most money in Q2 with deal value of USD13.7bn representing 40% of total spending by offshore acquirers and way ahead of its nearest competitor, which was the BVI.
The largest acquisition by any offshore company in Q2 was Shuanghui International’s USD7.1bn for meat producer Smithfield Foods of the USA.
There were also two major telecoms deals out of Hong Kong in Q2, Hutchison Whampoa’s USD1.1bn acquisition of the Irish business of Telefónica and Citic Telecom International’s USD750m acquisition of a 51% stake in Companhia de Telecomunicacoes de Macau SARL.
