Awards for Excellence 2019
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Goldman Sachs advised on the highest volume of M&A, both announced and completed, in Asia Pacific during our review period, but it is the importance of the transactions and their geographical range that win the bank this award. John Kim is head of M&A, ex-Japan Asia.
With China outbound M&A much diminished, this year was one in which to demonstrate versatility. Many of the most important deals Goldman advised upon had nothing to do with China, notably the sell-side role for Flipkart in its acquisition by Walmart, at $16 billion the biggest Indian M&A deal ever.
A role for Bharti Airtel acquiring a majority stake in Indus Towers for $6.5 billion, creating the world’s second largest telecom tower company, underlined a very strong year in India.
Other highlights included the $59 billion sale of Shire to Takeda Pharma, Japan’s largest ever pharma deal; CK Hutchison acquiring the outstanding 50% of Wind Tre; BHP’s sale of US petroleum assets to BP; and Recruit Holdings’ $1.2 billion acquisition of Glassdoor.
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| John Kim |
Goldman also stood out for the range of sectors it was involved in, including telcos (such as HKBN acquiring WTT HK), FIG (Sumitomo Mitsui acquiring Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional in Indonesia), metals and mining (ArcelorMittal acquiring Essar Steel), real estate (Unibail-Rodamco buying Westfield) and industrials, advising Orient Overseas on its purchase by Cosco Shipping and Shanghai International Port.
Goldman got into the vibrant private equity theme, with Bain buying Toshiba Memory Corporation, KKR acquiring Taiwan’s LCY Chemical and IMM Private Equity acquiring Linde Korea. And it wasn’t absent from China even in a difficult year, a highlight being various Chinese groups buying a stake in China Orient Asset Management for $2.9 billion.
Winning country awards in China and India, Goldman is very much on the front foot again in Asia.
