Asia enjoys a banner year for M&A despite tight travel restrictions

Covid left Asia’s big markets closed to business travel, yet M&A is surging, with Australia and southeast Asia at the forefront of activity. China, where the focus is on local investments, is, however, bucking the trend.

These should have been lost years for Asia’s M&A bankers. Covid’s rapid spread led many of the region’s big markets – among them, China, Singapore and Australia – to all but close their borders to business travel.

M&A volumes should have collapsed. Instead, 2020 and 2021 have been strong and, in some cases, banner years.

It’s easy to forget now, but this corner of the financial markets was already in trouble when the pandemic hit.

Total M&A activity for Asia ex-Japan in 2019 was $679 billion, down 10.3%

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