This year was already a fertile one for dealmakers in Hong Kong leading into Thursday. Then came HSBC Holdings Plc with its proposed $14 billion buyout of Hang Seng Bank Ltd to really put a rocket under things.
HSBC’s offer — buy the 37 percent of Hang Seng Bank it doesn’t own already — pushes this year’s potential volume of deals such as mergers and acquisitions involving companies in Hong Kong to $74 billion, a roughly 40 percent jump from the same period a year ago, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Meanwhile, the city’s Hang Seng Index has soared 31 percent, well on course for its best annual performance since 2017, which it finished with a 36 percent gain.
The equity-market rally has lifted investors’ spirits, said Mayooran Elalingam, Deutsche Bank AG’s head of investment banking coverage and advisory in Asia Pacific.
“Dialogue with clients about dealmaking is positive, which is quite encouraging for this fourth quarter and into next year,” he said.
HSBC’s bid for Hang Seng Bank, in addition to being a bet on the success of Hong Kong, marks a shift for a company that’s generally shied away from major deals in recent years and which has been cutting thousands of jobs.
Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery, who took over about a year ago, has remained bullish on Hong Kong’s position as a financial center. The reaction to the Hang Seng Bank offer was less so: HSBC’s shares slid 6 percent in Hong Kong on Thursday and 0.5 percent Friday.
Regardless, a multibillion-dollar proposal adds to the buzz around dealmaking.
Others in the offing include a $1.4 billion buyout of Kangji Medical Holdings Ltd by a consortium led by TPG Inc and Qatar Investment Authority. CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd is pursuing a more than $19 billion sale of its ports to a BlackRock Inc-backed group.
Bankers have been particularly busy with equity capital markets transactions. Hong Kong’s first-time share sale proceeds have reached $24 billion in 2025, heading for a four-year high, the data show. A big chunk of that comes from a growing cohort of Chinese mainland-listed firms flocking to the Asian financial hub for fundraising, in many cases to support their overseas expansion.
“While M&A activity level in Hong Kong is not as high as ECM, we are a lot busier now than a year ago,” said Sulan Yang, deputy chief executive officer of CGS International Holdings, a subsidiary of China Galaxy Securities Co. “This trend will likely continue over the coming months, with many companies seeking to buy technology assets to boost innovation and growth.”
China has also been on the boil this year, with the volume of deals climbing 42 percent from the same stretch in 2024 to $333 billion.
Highlights include Bain Capital’s $4 billion sale of its Chinese data centers, and JD.com Inc offering to acquire Europe’s biggest retailer of consumer electronics, Ceconomy AG.
