Hanoi (VNA) - Despite a slowdown in 2024, Vietnam’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market is expected to regain momentum, driven by the country’s strong economic fundamentals and supportive government policies.

According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Duc Tam, there was a decline in M&A deals in the first 10 months of 2024, with only 2,669 foreign-invested deals with a total value of over 3.68 billion USD. This represents a 10.4% decrease in the number of deals and a 29% drop in value compared to 2023.

Despite this decline, Tam held that the slowdown is consistent with global trends and should be seen as a temporary setback.

Data from Dealogic showed that globally, M&A deals reached 846.8 billion USD by September, a 14% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. In the Asia-Pacific region, M&A values surged by 54% to 273 billion USD, driven by a few large-scale transactions.

However, Southeast Asia’s M&A activity has remained muted, with investors cautious due to global economic uncertainty, despite measures like reduced interest rates aimed at stimulating growth.

Nguyen Cong Ai, Deputy General Director of KPMG Vietnam, noted that Vietnam’s M&A market is following the global slowdown. However, he held that the country will continue to attract investment in key sectors such as real estate, consumer goods, and the industrial sector, with emerging opportunities in technology, renewable energy, and finance.

He quoted data from KPMG, which revealed that in the first three quarters of 2024, Vietnam’s mergers and acquisitions recorded 3.2 billion USD worth of transactions, a 45.9% increase over the previous year. The real estate, consumer goods, and industrial sectors accounted for 88% of the deals, with average deal sizes around 56.3 million USD.

Experts predicted that activity will improve in 2025, with delayed deals likely to resume. The return of investors, particularly from Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and the US, is expected to drive this recovery. The Vietnamese Government’s active support for high-growth sectors, infrastructure development, and digitalisation is expected to play a key role in revitalising the market, they said.

Deputy Minister Tam highlighted that Vietnam's robust economic growth and the Government’s commitment to reform will continue to attract foreign investment, making the country’s M&A market more attractive, especia༒lly in areas of semiconductor, AI, and clean energy./.