It was ultra-competitive at the top of the M&A league tables in the review period. Goldman Sachs wins the award for Asia’s best bank for advisory this year because it was there on most of the big mergers and acquisitions. The bank advised on 76 deals in Asia Pacific in the 12 months to the end of March 2023, worth a total of $181.9 billion, according to Dealogic, for a 16.87% share of the market.
In Australia, the focal point of so much of the landmark M&A activity of the past year, it was present on every big deal. The bank advised BHP Petroleum on its $19.7 billion merger with Woodside Petroleum, the country’s biggest natural gas exporter. And it advised Australian biopharmaceuticals leader CSL on its $11.8 billion takeover of Switzerland’s Vifor, in a deal that closed in August 2022.
In Japan, Goldman acted as financial adviser to SMBC Aviation Capital on its $6.7 billion acquisition of Goshawk Aviation and as exclusive financial adviser to Olympus on the sale of its scientific solutions business to Bain Capital for $3.1 billion.
India was another standout market last year. Goldman acted as joint financial adviser to HDFC Bank in its merger with Housing Development Finance Corporation, the country’s largest mortgage lender, and as joint financial adviser to MindTree on its $3.2 billion merger with Larsen & Toubro Infotech.
“Despite a challenging environment – from Covid-19, geopolitical tensions, rising interest rates and market volatility – these transactions highlight our continued strength and focus in helping clients navigate through uncertainties across the region,” says Iain Drayton, head of Asia ex-Japan investment banking at Goldman Sachs.
Goldman’s global apparatus helped it to complete deals in markets other banks can’t reach. It advised commercial real estate investment trust Store Capital on its takeover by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and private equity firm Oak Street, a division of Blue Owl Capital, in a deal valued at around $14 billion.
And in southeast Asia, another hotspot for M&A and capital markets activity over the past year, Goldman was on Telkom Indonesia’s $3.9 billion spin-off of its broadband services division, Indihome, to Telkomsel. The firm advised Telkomsel, which is aiming to grow its operations in the country’s fixed broadband market.
Our business was resilient due to a strong and varied presence across the region
Iain Drayton
In China, the focus in recent years has shifted to inward rather than outward deal-making activity, and to localized consolidation, as multinationals seek to expand or consolidate their presence in Asia’s largest economy – and in some cases to divest unwanted assets as supply chains shift overseas.
Goldman acted as financial adviser to Chinese technology firm Horizon Robotics on the formation of a new $2 billion joint venture with Volkswagen’s software unit Cariad, in a deal that was announced in October 2022.
It also acted as sole financial adviser to Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) on the buyout firm’s sale of HCP Packaging, a Shanghai specialist in the design and manufacture of cosmetic packaging, to the Carlyle Group. Goldman also advised BPEA on its $7.4 billion acquisition by rival EQT, as the Swedish private equity firm scours Asia for new buyout opportunities.
“Rapidly changing market conditions require judgment and exceptional execution,” says Drayton. “From corporate restructurings, cross-border and public and private M&A, the work we did remained diverse. Our business was resilient due to a strong and varied presence across the region.”
