Dealflow directions have changed course: Asia-to-Europe outbound M&A transactions have unexpectedly spiked, according to the Singapore managing partner of Parisian firm Cotty Vivant Marchisio & Lauzeral.
“We have seen a good increase in M&A transactions between Europe and Asia. What is interesting is that we were expecting a higher volume from Europe to Asia. It is higher but we are also seeing an increasing volume from Asia into Europe and that is unexpected,” Philippe Taverne told ALB in an interview. “We expected more European companies to invest in Asia for external growth opportunities through acquisitions – which happened – but we were not expecting that many Asian companies to be interested into the European market,” he said.
According to Taverne, private equity funds are on the rise and driving the M&A market but growth in traditional investors – local industrial commercial companies – has also been significant.
“In 2010, we saw a 500% increase in private equity work – we closed an average of 2-3 deals a month,” he said. “Deals started to slowly improve in September 2009 but really took off from March 2010.” Sectors involved included the energy, IT, professional services and manufacturing industries.
In addition, growing representation of European wealthy families who run multi-jurisdictional business operations in Asia has been an area of growth for Cotty Vivant; and is something that Taverne sees as a driver of M&A deals into 2011.
This year, the firm has seen a more than 80% spike in revenue growth and is currently looking to expand its corporate finance capabilities. Cotty Vivant is looking to hire lawyers at both the associate and senior level. ALB
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