Preface

We did not start out wanting to write a book about Asian M&A. For the past decade or so we have been mulling over how to improve the competitiveness of Asian companies. After having seen the onslaught of Western multinational corporations in the late 1990s, Asian companies have risen in their global ranking and prominence. Indeed, there is a large number of firms that are now global household names, listed on U.S. or U.K. stock exchanges and increasingly featured in business school case studies.

In our opinion, many of these firms have achieved global excellence despite the poor industry structures in their home markets—where there is deep fragmentation, low differentiation, poor management practices, and the inevitable copycat strategies and price-based competition. To win, many Asian champions have had to expand abroad, acquiring established firms and building from there.

We see M&A as a critical driver of industry structure and future competitiveness in this region. However, mergers and acquisitions have been slow to come to Asia. Though deal activity is heating up in Asia, the industry endgames are still far away and dealmaking is still in its infancy. We expect the coming decade to be critical for Asian M&A and therefore the competitiveness of Asian industry. The Asian M&A story is expected to unfold rather differently, and perhaps unpredictably, from the patterns established in the developed markets of the West.

This book attempts to lay out the best ways to think about M&A and the associated industry consolidation, and explains how to make M&A work for Asian companies in their drive to become regional and global champions.

Vikram Chakravarty

Chua Soon Ghee