Southeast Asia Inc flexing M&A muscle

Southeast Asia companies have been flexing their muscle, making offshore acquisitions as they seek to diversify their presence outside the region, helped by supportive lending conditions.

“We are seeing more Southeast Asian companies having greater global ambitions outside of the region," Eugene Gong, head of M&A for Southeast Asia at Deutsche Bank, told FinanceAsia in a phone interview. "We have seen more companies look at acquisition opportunities in Europe, the US and Australia."

According to data provider Dealogic, outbound acquisitions by Southeast Asia companies touched $30.9 billion so far this year, the highest year-to-date tally on record.

Reflecting this theme is Singapore-listed Frasers Centrepoint, which last week made an unconditional offer for Australian property firm, Australand, backed by lenders Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and SMBC. Other examples that reflect growing global ambitions ambitions include Singapore agribusiness firm Wilmar and First Pacific’s bid for Australian food company Goodman Fielder.

In the Philippines, Universal Robina Corp, controlled by the Gokongwei family, in July struck a deal to acquire New Zealand's Griffin's Foods while Emperador agreed to buy United Spirits’ Whyte & Mackay whisky business in May.

Southeast Asia has long been in the shadow of China when it comes to interest from foreign investors. But lately, there has been renewed interest in the region.