A busy year from merger and acquisition (M&A) plays is expected even with China clamping down on capital outflows and uncertainty hanging over markets as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump looks to find its policy footing, JPMorgan’s co-head of M&A for Asia Pacific said on Monday.
Sectors that are likely to see M&A activity this year includes healthcare, as well as telecommunications and technology, and financial institutions.
“In 2017, a lot of the factors remains in place for robust M&A activities, like low interest rates. A lot of strategic rationales to do deals are still there in the corporate world,” Brian Gu told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
He added positive market confidence will also drive more deals.
The bank’s outlook this year follow strong performance in 2016 when the volume of global M&A transactions reached $3.9 trillion—lower than $4.7 trillion in 2015, but still the third largest year on record.
While China’s capital controls will slow the pace of transactions, they will not halt the deals, added Gu.
“In general, the government is not stopping cross-border transaction flow, their focus is trying to eliminate the capital outflow purely for capital movements rather than for strategic transactions,” he said.
General transactions that are not core to the businesses of buyers however may see some impact, he added.
Source: CNBC
