Global M&A expected in 2017 with an eye on telecoms, tech and finance

A busy year of mergers and acquisitions (M & A) is expected, although China clamping down on capital outflows and uncertainty hanging over markets as the administration of president Donald Trump looks to find its policy footing, JPMorgan's co-head of M&A for Asia Pacific said Monday.

Sectors that are likely to see M&A activity this year includes healthcare, as well as telecommunications and technology, and financial institutions.

Brian Gu said that the positive market confidence will lead to more deals.

The bank's outlook this year follow strong performance in 2016 when the volume of global M&A transactions reached $3.9 trillion—lower than $4.7 trillion in 2015, but still the third largest year on record.

Although China slowing down the pace of transactions for capital controls, their transactions will not halt, said Gu. He believes that the government will not stop the cross-border transactions flow, as their focus is trying to eliminate the capital outflow purely for capital movements rather than for strategic transactions. However the total transactions that are not core to the businesses of buyers may see some impact.

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