Real estate · Industry brief

Australia's telecommunications sector recorded its strongest mid-market M&A activity since 2021 in the first half of 2026, with 51 verified transactions and forecasts of 45-55 total telco and managed services deals for the full year, according to Morgan Business Sales' 2026 M&A Overview. Four ASX-listed consolidators are actively acquiring: Aussie Broadband completed the A$115 million acquisition of AGL Telco in June 2026, Superloop acquired Lightning Broadband for A$165 million in May 2026 at 15 times forecast FY27 EBITDA, Atturra has completed over ten bolt-on acquisitions since 2023, and notable cross-sector deals include Accenture's acquisition of CyberCX for over A$1 billion and MaxoTel's A$34.1 million contested takeover of Vonex. Valuation multiples vary by segment: internet service providers and telco resellers trade at three to twelve times EBITDA, unified communications at four to nine times, managed network services at five to ten times, and data centre connectivity assets exceeding twenty times EBITDA. Structural drivers include NBN wholesale price increases of 3.63 percent from July 2026 pressuring smaller resellers, Australia's cloud communications market forecast to grow from A$2.16 billion in 2024 to A$6.27 billion by 2030, cybersecurity spending at A$6.2 billion in 2025 with A$7.5 billion forecast for 2026, and Australia's position as the world's second-largest data centre investment destination with over A$155 billion in forward pipeline investment from Microsoft and AWS.

Vietnam's draft competition law amendments, published for public consultation in June 2026, propose material changes to merger control that will directly impact M&A deal structuring and timelines. Key proposals include lower notification thresholds capturing mid-market transactions and minority stake purchases, expanded definitions of "control" to include indirect shareholding and consortium arrangements common in private equity deals, extended Phase II review periods with new "stop the clock" mechanisms, and a broader menu of behavioural remedies alongside structural remedies. Tightened enforcement guidance and increased penalties already took effect in May 2026, creating immediate gun-jumping risk for deals currently between signing and closing. The draft also introduces retroactive review authority for recently completed non-notified transactions and individual officer liability for compliance breaches, representing a significant escalation of enforcement risk. Deal teams should immediately re-run threshold analyses on all pending transactions, implement clean-team protocols during due diligence, include merger-filing conditions precedent and realistic long-stop dates (minimum six months) in sale-and-purchase agreements, and document threshold analyses for good-faith compliance evidence. The amendments are expected to take effect in late 2026 or early 2027. Sources cited include the Vietnam Competition and Consumer Authority, the National Assembly of Vietnam, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.