IntraLinks Asia Pacific M&A Survey Shows Optimism High for Deals in Australia, While Sub-Prime Worries Continue

• 80% of Australian respondents are optimistic about the outlook for M&A activity over the next 12 months
• Energy (25%) and finance sector (23%) expected to lead M&A activity in Australia
• Lack of debt finance perceived as greatest obstacle to overcome
• Competitive auction process most important factor in raising the price of an asset

Syndey, 17th October 2007
The majority (80%) of Australian respondents are optimistic about the outlook for M&A activity over the next 12 months, according to the results of the first Asia Pacific M&A monitor conducted for IntraLinks, the leading provider of online workspaces. The survey respondents were M&A professionals from legal, corporate, banking, private equity and advisory firms, focussing on the Asia Pacific market.
 
The credit crunch has impacted the cheap debt that was fuelling M&A activity and the lack of debt finance available was perceived to be the greatest obstacle to M&A growth in the region as a whole (31%) but Australian respondents were particularly affected (53%). However the region also had the highest degree of respondents who were ‘very optimistic’ about the market outlook compared to other areas and more than 10% of total respondents believed Australia had the best M&A outlook for the next year, with 45% citing China and 26% India. Of the industries most likely to see M&A activity in Australia, 25% rated Energy and 23% cited Financial Services in first place.

The most significant factors rated as impacting activity over the next year were strategic reasons (78%), cash surpluses at corporates to fund acquisitions (72%) and attractive pricing (44%). Cheap debt was seen as having the least impact with only 25% of Australian respondents rating it as ‘influential’ or ‘very influential’.

The primary factor cited by respondents across Asia as influencing the success of an M&A transaction was sector attractiveness (25%), while the most important factor in raising the price of an asset was the competitive auction process (45%). Providing the ability for multiple bidder parties to see documents simultaneously was given as the most important factor in saving time on a transaction for Australia by 65% of those taking part. A massive 73% of total respondents preferred the use of virtual datarooms over other methods of sharing information with cost reduction cited from reduction of travel and removing the cost of physical datarooms given as the primary benefits. More than 90% of respondents who have already used IntraLinks would recommend it to others.

Commenting on the survey results, Patrick Wack, Chairman of IntraLinks, Inc said:

“It is reassuring to see the high levels of optimism in the Australian market. As one of the most mature M&A markets in the region, it has clearly worried about the impact of the global credit crunch. But the opportunity that exists within the domestic market and regional opportunities are keeping the outlook positive.”

“Secure online, workspaces have not only gained broad acceptance amongst the M&A community, but are playing a pivotal role in increasing the success of the deal process. Running a competitive M&A process, reaching out to international bidders while being able to multi-task on deals and avoiding travel costs are all making IntraLinks’ virtual dataroom the preferred choice for both sell side and buy side M&A participants.”

About IntraLinks
IntraLinks® On-Demand Workspaces™ connect business communities and accelerate the intelligent flow of information and documents among participants. Through IntraLinks' secure, neutral, online environments, companies are better able to compete globally by accelerating essential business processes, simplifying communication and fostering rapid workflow. IntraLinks is easily accessible anywhere, anytime, using a web browser.

Since 1997, more than 700,000 participants representing over 80,000 organizations worldwide have used IntraLinks On-Demand Workspaces™ to communicate and collaborate on thousands of projects and transactions. IntraLinks has been adopted widely in the financial services and pharmaceutical industries, where its clients include AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, FDIC, TD Securities, Thomas Weisel Partners and WestLB, among hundreds of others. Founded in 1996, IntraLinks is headquartered in New York with offices around the world.