Healthcare sector sees renewed interest from corporate buyers

The healthcare industry recorded a deal value of US$1.13b SG$1.53b) between January and April.

MARKETS & INVESTING

Corporate buyers are increasingly returning to the healthcare sector to acquire bolt-on targets as valuations cool amidst a persistently challenging private equity (PE) exit environment. Deals such as Fullerton Health’s sale to Far East Drug Co and the acquisition of Eu Yan Sang by Japan’s Mitsui and ROHTO Pharmaceutical are a testament to this trend.

These two high-profile control deals helped propel healthcare to become the industry with the biggest mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by deal value in Singapore this year, according to Yiqing Wang, managing editor for Asia Pacific at Mergermarket, a service of ION Analytics.

Despite only having four deals, the healthcare industry recorded a deal value of US$1.13b (SG$1.53b), accounting for 25% of deal value recorded in Singapore from January to April.

The sector’s deal value in the first four months of 2024 is already above its 2023 record of US$464m.

“For the first time in the past 10 years, healthcare has overtaken technology to be the biggest M&A industry in Singapore,” Wang said.