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Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in Southeast Asia was substantial in 2025, but the figures do not point to one uniform regional boom. ASEAN reported a 6.6% rise in net cross-border M&A sales to US$13.3 billion, while private-equity deployment fell by value in separate industry datasets. Singapore led PwC’s reported country totals, and deal interest clustered in industries including industrials, real estate, technology, energy, and consumer businesses. These numbers measure different things, so the useful way to read them is by provider, scope, and period.
What counts as Southeast Asian M&A?
M&A refers to mergers, acquisitions, and related transactions in which companies combine or ownership changes. Market reports may count announced or completed deals, cross-border transactions or all deal types, and private-equity-backed investments or buyouts. They also differ in whether undisclosed transactions are included and how deal value is calculated.
That matters in Southeast Asia: there is no single harmonized total in the figures below. ASEAN’s cross-border measure, PwC’s country overview, EY’s PE-backed deals, Deloitte’s buyouts, and Conyers’ recent completed-deal series are separate datasets—not components to add together.
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How active was the region?
ASEAN’s cross-border measure rose in 2025
ASEAN’s Invest ASEAN update, published in 2026, reports that net cross-border M&A sales rose 6.6% to US$13.3 billion in 2025. This is a cross-border measure, not a count or value of every M&A transaction in the region. ASEAN Invest ASEAN
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A separate 2024 comparison was affected by one unusually large deal
The ASEAN Investment Report 2025 says cross-border M&A value fell 61% in 2024, from US$28 billion in 2023 to US$11 billion. It notes that a US$23 billion VinFast–Black Spade merger in 2023 skewed the comparison. This illustrates how a single very large transaction can change year-over-year regional totals. ASEAN Investment Report 2025
A six-month completed-deal series offers another snapshot
Conyers counted 375 completed transactions worth US$13.6 billion in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam from September 2025 through February 2026. The series covers five countries and a six-month window, so it should not be directly compared with ASEAN’s 2025 cross-border measure. Conyers’ Q1 2026 report
Which countries led PwC’s 2025 overview?
PwC Philippines’ 2025 Southeast Asia overview reports the following deal values and counts. Treat these as figures from PwC’s dataset, not an official exhaustive census of each country’s transactions. PwC’s key highlights are dated 4 December 2025.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →| Market | Reported deal value | Reported deals |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | US$31.7 billion | 336 |
| Malaysia | US$7.3 billion | 147 |
| Vietnam | US$6.9 billion | 94 |
| Indonesia | US$6.2 billion | 102 |
| Philippines | US$4.6 billion | 74 |
| Thailand | US$4.2 billion | 101 |
PwC identifies Laos and Cambodia as small contributors with limited deal flow in its account. The table therefore should not be read as a complete ranking of every Southeast Asian market. PwC Philippines’ 2025 Southeast Asia overview
Which sectors drew reported deal activity?
PwC’s 2025 sector figures show several active areas rather than a single dominant theme. The report’s key highlights, dated 4 December 2025, put industrials and real estate together at US$61.2 billion across 862 deals; the separate sector figures below provide additional context.
| Sector | Reported deal value | Reported deals |
|---|---|---|
| Industrials | US$9.9 billion | 134 |
| Real estate | US$9.8 billion | 63 |
| Technology | US$8.9 billion | 169 |
| Energy and natural resources | US$8.7 billion | 122 |
| Consumer and retail | US$8.2 billion | 111 |
PwC describes interest in industrial automation, electronics assembly, data centers, enterprise software, cybersecurity, renewables, logistics, hospitality, and businesses tied to recurring consumption. These are report-identified areas of interest, not a guarantee that every sub-sector saw high deal volumes. PwC Philippines’ 2025 Southeast Asia overview
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How active was private equity?
Private equity (PE) is one part of the M&A picture, and PE reports use their own deal definitions. EY’s PE-backed deal figures and Deloitte’s buyout figures should be read separately.
EY: fewer dollars and deals than in 2024
EY Singapore reports US$9.1 billion deployed across 59 PE-backed deals in 2025, compared with US$16 billion across 67 deals in 2024. It also reports four megadeals in 2025 versus eight in 2024, and an average disclosed deal size of US$267 million versus US$356 million. EY says digital infrastructure represented 42% of PE investments. EY Singapore’s ASEAN private-equity update
EY’s Luke Pais, EY-Parthenon ASEAN Private Equity Leader, describes a shift in the year: activity began robustly in Q1, turned more cautious in Q2 amid geopolitical volatility and tariff concerns, and rebounded in Q3, which EY identifies as 2025’s most active deployment period. He also says Singapore accounted for over 74% of total PE value in EY’s measure. These are EY’s characterizations of its dataset, not official regional rules or a universal PE market share.
Deloitte: buyouts and dry powder
Deloitte Southeast Asia’s 2026 almanac reports 56 buyout deals worth US$6.4 billion in 2025. Mid-market deals represented 64% of buyout volume, and reported dry powder was US$21.1 billion. These are buyout-specific figures and should not be combined with EY’s PE-backed transaction totals. Deloitte Southeast Asia Private Equity Almanac
Deloitte’s Jamil Raza Syed says secondary buyouts featured more prominently as sponsors sought to recycle ownership, extend holding periods, and allow more time for value creation. That is the report’s market commentary, rather than a quantitative measure of all regional PE activity.
What is the near-term outlook?
Conyers expects activity across South and Southeast Asia to remain resilient but disciplined and sector-focused through the rest of 2026. For ASEAN, it points to sustained interest in digital infrastructure, energy, healthcare, and industrial platforms, and describes recent activity as selective, with private equity the dominant buyer class in its covered transactions and buyers tending to seek majority stakes. This is a forecast and description from Conyers, not a certainty about future deal volumes.
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ASEAN’s 2026 update separately highlights investment themes including communications, semiconductors, electronics, renewable energy, and digital infrastructure. It describes Singapore as a regional headquarters and finance hub; Malaysia and Thailand as active in electronics and communications; and Indonesia and Vietnam as focused on critical minerals, EV value chains, and advanced manufacturing. Those investment patterns are not, by themselves, evidence of high M&A volume in each sector.
How to compare M&A figures without mixing unlike data
Before using two figures to claim that activity rose, fell, or shifted between markets, check what each source actually counted:
- Geography: Is the dataset ASEAN-wide, a subset of ASEAN countries, or South and Southeast Asia including India?
- Transaction type: Does it cover all M&A, cross-border M&A, PE-backed deals, or buyouts?
- Status and period: Are the deals announced or completed, and does the period cover a calendar year or a shorter window?
- Value basis: Is the number disclosed deal value, net cross-border sales, or another total reported by the publisher?
- Coverage threshold: Does the source include small transactions with undisclosed values?
For example, ASEAN’s 2025 net cross-border sales figure, PwC’s country overview, EY’s PE-backed deal data, Deloitte’s buyout series, and Conyers’ September 2025–February 2026 completed deals answer different questions. Their figures are informative in their own lanes, but they do not produce a defensible single total for Southeast Asian M&A.
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