S. Korea ranks 6th in number of chemical sector M&As last year: report

SEOUL, June 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea ranked sixth globally in the number of merger and acquisitions (M&As) undertaken in the chemical sector last year, a report by a local accounting firm showed Monday.

Of the total 864 M&As, worth a combined US$112.7 billion in 2017, 49 cases involved South Korean chemical entities. In terms of volume, the Northeast Asian country stood at 11th in the world with $2.8 billion, according to the report by Samjeong KPMG.

The United States topped the list in terms of the number of takeovers with 283 cases last year, followed by China, Japan, Germany, and Britain. As for transaction volume, the U.S. also came first with $53.7 billion, followed by the Netherlands, China, Brazil and Germany, the report showed.

Some 77 percent of the M&As involved a chemical company and an entity from another sector, such as bio, construction and telecommunications, up from 69.6 percent in 2013 and 71.6 percent in 2015. This implies that inter-industry integrations have accelerated, Samjeong said.

Over the past five years, the total number of M&As in the chemical industry globally grew 21 percent from 628 in 2013, and the transaction volume more than doubled from $48 billion in 2013, the findings showed.

"As prices of raw materials have fluctuated significantly, chemical firms appear to prefer M&A strategies to starting a new venture from scratch," said KPMG official Ko Byung-joon.

graceoh@yna.co.kr
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