For many SME business owners in Malaysia, mergers and acquisitions remain a relatively unfamiliar concept and it is often perceived as something only relevant to large corporations or multinational companies. Yet as the business landscape in Southeast Asia evolves, more business owners are beginning to recognise M&A as a strategic tool, whether for succession planning, business growth, or long-term value creation.
With M&A gaining increasing relevance among SME business owners in Malaysia, our Malaysian team took a meaningful step forward in driving M&A awareness and education on the ground. On 5th May 2026, the team jointly organised a full-day workshop with one of our accounting partners, Chia, Ka & Partners PLT (CKP), titled “Mergers & Acquisitions Readiness: What Every Business Owner Needs to Know.”
Notably, the programme was a HRD Corp claimable programme, meaning it has been reviewed and approved by Malaysia’s Human Resource Development Corporation, a government body under the Ministry of Human Resources, as a recognised training programme. The fact that an M&A-focused workshop qualifies for this is a strong signal that M&A is increasingly recognised as a timely and relevant topic for Malaysian businesses.
The workshop brought together 14 SME business owners from a diverse mix of industries including die-casting for auto parts, water treatment & engineering consulting, serviced offices, F&B, and laboratory equipment, all with one shared interest: understanding what M&A can truly mean for their business. The level of interest was evident from the start, with one participant even flying down from Penang in the north of Malaysia that same morning just to attend.
What the Workshop Covered
The workshop was curated to provide business owners with a practical and holistic understanding of what it takes to be M&A-ready, combining perspectives from both M&A advisory and financial advisory.
This dual-lens approach was intentional, and it is also the reason why the collaboration with CKP was central to the programme. Across Southeast Asia, it is common for SME owners to lack clean financial reporting processes, or to operate with multiple sets of books, which is always a challenge that often becomes one of the most significant roadblocks during the M&A process. Rather than addressing M&A in isolation, the team sought to bring both perspectives together to give participants a more complete and realistic picture of what readiness truly looks like.
The day was structured across three key sessions:
Session 1: M&A as a Strategic Option
Presented by Mr. Ryosuke Sakamoto, our Deputy Director at the Malaysia team, the opening session spanned a comprehensive 2.5 hours and explored M&A as a strategic option, not only from the sell-side, but also from the buy-side perspective. He began by walking participants through the fundamentals of what M&A is, before moving into the current M&A market and succession trends in Japan and how the structural challenges that emerged in Japan decades ago are now beginning to surface in Malaysia. From there, he guided the room through a typical deal process from both the seller’s and buyer’s point of view, before diving into the valuation methods commonly used in M&A transactions. This included an exploration of the qualitative and quantitative drivers that influence business value, accompanied by examples across different industries and situations to help participants develop a general sense of where their business might stand.
Session 2: Financial Readiness & Due Diligence
Following Mr. Sakamoto’s session, Mr. Jeremy, Managing Partner of CKP, led an in-depth segment on financial due diligence and valuation using real data. Drawing on insights from completed deals in Malaysia, including well-known names such as FarmFresh and InsideScoop, Mr. Jeremy illustrated why strong financials are not just important, but foundational to any successful transaction. His message was clear – whether a business owner is looking to exit or acquire, their numbers are what give them the power to negotiate well, maximise value, and make informed decisions. The session served as a natural complement to Mr. Sakamoto, reinforcing a key point that to be M&A-ready, a business needs to first be financially ready.
Session 3: Real Case Studies
Our consultant, Mr. Jason Chan, closed out the day by presenting three real case studies successfully completed by the Malaysia team. These provided participants with a tangible look at how deals come together in practice, from initial conversations through to completion, and brought everything discussed throughout the day full circle.
The Key Takeaway
Across all three sessions, one message came through consistently: it is not about when you decide to pursue M&A, it is about being ready, so that when the opportunity presents itself, you are in the best position to make the right move. And when you are, you get to make decisions from a position of strength, not urgency.
The team’s goal has always been a simple one, which is to help SME business owners in the region see that M&A is not something distant or complicated, but a real and strategic option available to them, especially when their financials are in order.
The Overwhelming Response
With 14 participants in the room, the intimate setting allowed for deeper conversations, more candid questions, and genuine back-and-forth engagement throughout the day, particularly during Mr. Sakamoto’s session, where participants were actively raising questions from start to finish.
Following the workshop, participants were invited by the team to share their feedback through a questionnaire, and the results were highly encouraging. The team received an average rating of 9 out of 10 for the overall experience, with many participants noting that the content was highly relevant to their current business stage and genuinely worth the full-day commitment.
What’s Next?
Although this was the Malaysia team’s very first full-day public workshop using a completely different format and approach, it was a resounding success. The team is already in the process of planning the next run, and is always committed to deepen existing partnerships and build new ones to bring even more value to SME business owners across the region.
A sincere thank you to CKP for the strong partnership in making this workshop possible. Collaborations like these are what drive the M&A ecosystem forward, and the team looks forward to continuing to work alongside like-minded partners who share the same commitment to helping business owners navigate their next chapter with confidence.