King & Wood Mallesons and Gilbert + Tobin have come out of 2012 with significantly improved results in the annual Thomson Reuters M&A league tables. Both firms have surged ahead in both the announced and completed deal tables for the year, which saw overall M&A activity involving Australia and New Zealand drop 50 percent from the 2011 total of US$173 billion to US$88 billion. 

Mallesons upped its ranking in the completed deals tally from fifth in 2011 to first in 2012, while Gilbert +Tobin jumped from 15th to fourth. In the announced table Mallesons came in second behind Herbert Smith Freehills (which came second in the completed) up from fourth the year before, while Gilbert + Tobin surged from 11th to fourth. Baker & McKenzie also improved its result, up from 14^th in 2011 for announced deals to seventh in 2012.

Australia and New Zealand were not alone in the M&A freefall, with the exception of the Asia Pacific region (ex-Japan), the rest of the global M&A market saw sharp falls in both volumes and values of M&A activity. “As the world M&A market has slowed, Asia has really stepped forward to establish itself as a power house in the global M&A market,” said Herbert Smith Freehills partner Rebecca Maslen-Stannage. “What’s more, in 2012 we saw more acquisitions emanating from Asia than deals targeting Asian assets reflecting the continued influence on the global M&A stage of players from the Asia Pacific region.”

M&A activity with Asian involvement reached US$488.9 billion in 2012, up 16.7 percent when compared to the previous year. According to King & Wood Mallesons partner Craig Semple Chinese outbound M&A activity in particular spurred the Asian market.: “In the context of the global market for M&A, the strength of Asia and in particular Chinese led M&A was impressive,” he said. “When you look at the Asia Pacific region (ex-Japan) throughout the calendar year, up until the end of the third quarter China cross border activity was below 2011 figures; but, in the last quarter values surged.”

Semple is expecting Chinese outbound M&A to continue strongly, although he thinks it will be re-focused on acquisitions in the telecommunications, consumer and industrial space, rather than mining and energy.

Maslen-Stannage is equally optimistic: “There are hopes that with the fiscal cliff issues now abating and more encouraging signs out of China, the market will be stronger in 2013 building on the emerging Asian acquiring strength that we saw last year,” she said.

Any Australian or New Zealand involvement completed 2012

Any Australian or New Zealand involvement announced 2012