Do acquisitions show increasing Aussie confidence abroad?

By Harry Allan
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Signs are emerging that Australian businesses are feeling confident of acquiring businesses overseas again.
 

Three well-sized Australian businesses have announce offshore acquisitions in the past week alone; while this is not yet enough to indicate a trend, the Australian Financial Review reported, it could very well be the early signs of one in the making. A number of other relatively high-profile acquisitions have been touted in the past year.

Here are six acquisitions that could show a resurgence of improved Australian business sentiment abroad:
 

1. Travel insurance reseller Cover-More has just purchased Travelex Insurance Services - the third largest retail travel insurance group in the USA - for $138 million

2. Bapcor has bid $306.18 million for New Zealand-based Company Hellaby Holdings

3. Flight Centre has grown its footprint in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Germany by an acquiring businesses owned by European online travel agency eDreams ODIGEO

4. Wesfarmers signed a $700 million deal to buy UK home hardware chain Homebase in January this year

5. Mayne Pharma found $888 million to purchase a large American generic drugs business

6. Treasury Wine Estates spent $750 million on buying up Diageo's US and European wine operations last October

Editor’s Comment: 
 

While the Cover-More deal has been marred by share price issues, the broader picture from looking at the scale and profile of these deals is surely an optimistic one. Homebase and, more notably Diageo, represent strong brands abroad and are surely to deliver strong returns with the right plans in place.  

Business Review Australia & Asia's September issue is live. 

Follow @BizReviewAU and @MrNLon on Twitter. 

Business Review Australia is also on Facebook. 

SOURCE: [Financial Review]

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