Succeeding at Mergers & Acquisitions in Southeast Asia

23 March 2023 @ 10:00 am - 11:30 am

SICC Members' Room

Members had the opportunity yesterday to learn about merger and acquisition (M&A) trends in Southeast Asia (SEA) and the key success factors from an expert practitioner. Chamber member Mr. Jacques Pickering, Managing Director, Pickering Pacific Pte Ltd shared investors have resilient interest in growth markets and, particularly, those of Indonesia, Vietnam and The Philippines. The M&A market in the region has not fully matured but opportunities aplenty exist.

Some projections for 2023 include:

  • The stabilization of macroeconomic conditions provide strong potential for M&A in the SEA region to bounce back earlier than expected.
  • Investors are developing an interest in SEA markets as companies relocate businesses and manufacturing operations from China to increase supply-chain resilience and to lower costs.

Jacques also shared the key success factors and best practices in the M&A journey:

  • Have a clear strategy from the onset about on your exclusion or preference criteria.
  • Know who the decision makers are in target companies irrespective of job titles and build rapport with them to keep the door open to discussions.
  • Have an internal or external team with M&A capabilities and local language expertise to proactively conduct due diligence. This is especially so in a region where public information is either not available or unreliable.
  • Successful execution means incentivizing the sellers to keep them engaged coupled with due diligence.
  • Successful integration means clear and frequent communication and sensitivity on the part of the acquirer for the corporate culture of the acquiree.

Many thanks, once again, to Mr. Jacques Pickering for a thoughtful presentation with plenty of useful insights and to our audience for being active participants.

Scroll to Top
Scroll to Top