If Metrobank and Solidbank merge, Metrobank would once again be the Philippines' largest bank. TSMC, already the world's biggest chip foundry, is desperately trying to boost production as the electronics industry goes through one of its perennial boom cycles. There's more to come. A fair number of our deals are driven by consolidation within markets and across borders . . . Asian companies are finding a need to compete on a global scale and that's harder to do if you only operate in one country.
Competitors have to react.
But it's not just market forces bringing businesses together. Asian governments are playing matchmaker and running roughshod over entrenched interests. Another example, he says, is Malaysia's efforts to force its banks to merge. Indeed, banking regulators in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan are using carrots and sticks to consolidate and strengthen their fragmented banking industries. In the Philippines, half a dozen mergers and acquisitions in the past year have already started to reshape the banking industry.