AUSTRALIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Alberto Colla, Keith Tan, Hugh McDonald and Dean Zinn, MinterEllison
Introduction The Australian public M&A market rebounded strongly in 2024, with 74 public M&A transactions being the largest number of deals announced within a calendar year since 77 transactions were announced in 2012 (more than a decade earlier). Transactions in the mining and metals, energy and resources, industrials and technol - ogy sectors dominated, headlined by: • Renesas’ AUD9.03 billion acquisition of ASX- listed software company Altium; • Seven Group’s acquisition of the remain - ing shares in Boral with an implied value of AUD6.7 billion; and • Saint Gobain’s AUD4.03 billion acquisition of ASX-listed building products company CSR. Despite the significant uptick in the volume of public deals this past year, the three ‘mega’ deals described above were largely outliers. Only 11 out of 74 deals had a value of more than AUD1 billion, and no deals eclipsed the AUD10 billion mark, as occurred in each of the five years prior to 2024. Private treaty deals also saw increased activity levels, with Australia’s largest M&A transaction of the year being Blackstone and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s AUD24 billion acquisition of data centre provider AirTrunk. In the first quarter of the 2025 calendar, the Aus - tralian M&A market showed no signs of slow - ing down, as evidenced by each of Insignia Financial, SelfWealth, PointsBet, and AUCyber fielding rival bids from multiple bidders, Fortes - cue making a strategic play for ASX-listed Red Hawk Mining, and the AUD672 million bid from US-based pharmaceutical company Cosette for ASX-listed Mayne Pharma.
The early impetus for improved M&A activity in 2025 emanates from a combination of the fol - lowing: • stabilisation and decline in inflation, which has contributed to the Reserve Bank of Aus - tralia’s decision to cut interest rates, following the lead of the United States Federal Reserve and European Central Bank; • the outcome of the Presidential election in the United States has delivered increased market certainty and is expected to deliver a more business-friendly and deregulatory approach to M&A and capital markets; • with the Australian dollar recently hitting a five-year low against the US dollar in Janu - ary 2025, offshore acquires are likely to see significant value in Australian targets which are ‘ripe’ for M&A transactions; • elevated levels of untapped dry powder among private equity participants and a growing number of funds nearing the end of their life cycles and seeking to secure portfo - lio exits; and • looming reforms to Australia’s merger laws are due to enter into a transitional period from mid-2025 before the mandatory and suspen - sory regime comes into effect on 1 January 2026. This article expands on these trends, examin - ing the key regulatory and market developments shaping the current and future direction of the Australian public M&A market. Key Regulatory Developments Takeovers Panel guidance on standstill provisions The Australian Takeovers Panel (the “Panel” ) is the administrative body responsible for enforc - ing, developing, and providing market guidance regarding Australia’s takeover laws. In 2024, the
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