Deal Drivers: APAC provides an in-depth review of M&A activity in the first quarter of 2026 and an outlook for the year ahead.

Giants feast while mid-market fasts

Q1 2026’s two-speed M&A market has become a familiar sight. Transaction volume across EMEA fell 16% year-on-year to 4,310 deal announcements, retreating to 2023 levels, yet aggregate value rose by 28% to €360.2bn, a high-water mark over the past three years.

A steady, if slower, start to the year

Deal flow has reset after last year’s US$1.2tn surge. Q1 value retreated sharply to US$219bn, down 35.9% year-on-year, with volume sliding 15.8% to 2,334 transaction announcements as buyers repriced macro risk. But the contraction is less dramatic than the headline figures suggest: in value terms, Q1 2026 still outpaced the same periods in both 2024 and 2023. The market remains primed, if discernibly pickier.

A rare fundraising win

Asia’s PE industry has welcomed a major win recently, with Blackstone Capital Partners Asia III raising US$12bn, surpassing its target despite a challenging regional fundraising environment. Bain & Co estimates APAC dry powder has fallen to around US$240bn from its US$315bn peak in 2023 as fundraising weakened for a fourth consecutive year. With sidelined capital reserves dwindling, the region’s PE buyout value jumped 31.8% year-on-year to US$54.9bn in Q1 even as deal count fell 9.6% to 564.

Heavy metal

In APAC’s biggest deal of Q1, SGH tabled a US$9.6bn bid for Australia’s largest steelmaker, securing 100% of BlueScope before carving out the Americas operations to Steel Dynamics. The breaking up of the legacy giant creates two regional champions.

Published in association with Datasite. The report is also available on datasite.com.