The Knowledge to Decide

The overall Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) activity of Japanese firms continues to grow and overseas M&A deals are in the spotlight. In 2016, Japan’s outbound M&A activity exceeded USD100 billion, the second highest historic level and a 15% increase over 2015. Will Japan continue to tap into international markets in search of growth and sustainability? Growing M&A activity A low economic growth rate and a shrinking population shocked Japan’s business leaders into changing their outlook, prioritizing growth through overseas market development. And M&A was seen as the fastest way to achieve that. Significant cross-border M&A activity is a relatively recent phenomenon in Japan. Japanese M&A volume was robust in 2016, amounting to USD198 billion in total transaction value. Cross-border M&A did well, accounting for 57 per cent of total M&A deals in 2016, up from 45 per cent in 2011. Beginning in 2006, Japan’s cross-border M&A vo

With the lifting of trade sanctions against Iran in July 2015, a surge in energy demand led to the development of the renewables sector. SUNA – the renewable energy organization of Iran – aims to attract private investment worth USD10 billion by 2018 and USD60 billion by 2025. Wind energy will be crucial to Iran. There are 15 operational wind farms at present with 100,000 Megawatts of potential capacity. Can Iran attract more investment into its growing wind energy sector? https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/iran-nurturing-its-wind-energy-sector/

On the morning of 24 April, 2015 a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked Nepal. With 8 million people affected and more than 4,000 feared dead, the estimated cost of reconstruction is more than USD5 billion. The scale of devastation is bound to have an economic impact on one of the poorest countries in the world, affecting industries as diverse as tourism, energy, agriculture and infrastructure. What will it take to get Nepal back on track? The level of devastation The damage wrought by the earthquake was felt across the breadth ot this small country. It damaged buildings in the capital city of Kathmandu. As a result of the many aftershocks, buildings and temples collapsed, with roads splitting wide open due to cracks. Heritage sites such as Kathmandu’s Dharahara Tower (known as Bhimsen tower) – a 19th century structure with nine floors – collapsed, with at least 50 people stuck in the rubble. Dozens of historical buildings, monuments and temples