Australian recruitment businesses are less likely to engage in mergers & acquisition (M&A) activity in 2016 than in 2015, according to the findings of a newly released survey.

Prepared by corporate advisory firm Acquisiti, ‘M&A Expectations for the Australian Recruitment Sector 2016’ points out that as a combined group, less than half of respondents (44%) expect to buy or sell this year, down slightly on 2015 (50%). 

Top benefits of engaging in M&A activity were identified as achieving greater scale (44%), entering new markets (41%) and accessing new clients (35%).

The top three popular sectors for potential acquisition were ICT (35%), health, medical and/or allied health (32%) and executive search (26%). The call centre (0%) and communications and media sectors (3%) were the least popular.

Of those who took part, the bulk of head offices were businesses based in New South Wales, where Sydney is the leading city, and Victoria, Australia’s most densely populated state and where Melbourne is located. Two international firms participated, one from Indonesia and one from Switzerland.

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