More Healthcare, Digital Asset Mergers and Acquisitions Ahead

Investors, Issuers Focus on More Value Creation With Smaller M&As as Mega Deals Wane

- Benjamin Lim

Large deals valued at over US$5 billion (S$6.4 billion) are becoming less common in Singapore, with investors and issuers placing a greater focus on creating more value from smaller mergers and acquisitions (M&As).

The sole mega deal in 2025 so far was the sale in July of Temasek's stake in an Indian joint venture with Schneider Electric to the French company for $8.18 billion, after a dearth of such deals in the first half of 2025.

While US investment firm KKR & Co is expected to complete a $6.4 billion acquisition of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres in the coming weeks, other mega deals, such as the reported merger between Singapore's Grab and Indonesia's GoTo, have not progressed owing to reasons such as driver backlash and regulatory barriers.

A deal, if it takes place, is speculated to be potentially worth more than US$7 billion.

Although there were no blockbuster deals worth US$5 billion or more in the first half of 2025, the total worth of M&As involving Singapore companies reached US$35.2 billion, representing a 3.2 per cent increase from the same period in 2024, according to a July report by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

There were at least nine deals involving Singapore companies valued between US$1 billion and US$3 billion totaling US$14.9 billion in the first half of 2025, compared with five in the first half of 2024, the LSEG report revealed.

The nine deals include SG Holdings Global, a Singapore subsidiary of Japanese logistics firm SG Holdings, completing its acquisition of Taiwan freight forwarding company Morrison Express in July for US$900 million.

In June, Chinese mining company Zijin also signed a deal via its Singapore subsidiary Jinha Mining to acquire a 100 per cent stake in the Raygorodok gold mine in Kazakhstan. The deal is valued at $1.2 billion.