A total 215 deals were announced in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region during the week ended March, 29, 2020, which is a decrease of 18.6% over 264 deals announced during the previous week, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

Globally, deal activity has been on a downward trend on the back of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, and the APAC region is no exception.

Deal activity plunged in most of the key APAC markets during the week ended March 29, 2020 compared to the previous week. While India witnessed a decline in deal volume by 63.4%, South Korea and China witnessed 40% and 4.4% decline, respectively. However, Japan and Australia witnessed 20.7% and 40% growth in deal volume.

Sectors such as healthcare (including pharmaceuticals and medical equipment) and travel and tourism witnessed decline in deal activity during the week ended March, 29, 2020 compared to the previous week. On the other hand, the retail sector witnessed improvement in deal activity.

Most of the key deal types witnessed a decline in volume during the week, with M&A deals volume declining by 32.1%, and private equity, venture financing and partnerships deals dropping by 44.4%, 5.7% and 36.4%, respectively. However, the number of licensing agreements announced during the week increased by 33.3%.