A total of 385 deals were announced in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region during the week ended 3 May 2020, which is an increase of 11.6% over 345 deals announced during the previous week, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that the deal volume during the week surpassed the first quarter (Q1) 2020 and April 2020 weekly average levels.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData comments: “Some of key APAC markets such as China have started returning back to normalcy and this marks the third consecutive week of growth in deal volume amid volatile global market conditions since the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.”

Deal activity increased in key markets such as China, Australia and India, which witnessed increase in deal volume by 28.1%, 25.5% and 11.4%, respectively, during the week ended 3 May 2020 compared to the previous week. However, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia witnessed decline in deal activity.

Sectors such as healthcare (including pharmaceuticals and medical equipment) and retail witnessed improvement in deal activity during the week compared to the previous week, whereas the deal activity in travel and tourism sector remained flat. The volume of key deal types such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), venture financing, partnership and equity offerings increased by 7.0%, 14.0%, 13.3% and 23.5%, respectively, during the week compared to the previous week, whereas the volume of debt offering deals declined by 1.6%. The number of licensing agreements and private equity deals remained at the same level.