M&A Target Mapping for Strategic Growth in Asia

Client Background 

The client is a mid-sized European industrial automation company with a strong home-market presence and a growing interest in Asia. To accelerate expansion and strengthen its automation portfolio, the company was exploring strategic acquisitions in high-growth Asian markets. 

Client’s Challenge 

The client aimed to identify and evaluate niche automation firms across India, Vietnam, and Thailand with defensible intellectual property and strong local execution capabilities. However, due to market fragmentation and limited on-ground visibility, the client lacked confidence in distinguishing scalable innovation from noise. They needed help validating both technical merit and cultural compatibility of potential acquisition targets. 

How Mordor Intelligence Helped 

• Mapped the Target Landscape: Conducted detailed market scans across three countries, identifying firms operating at the intersection of industrial automation and localized applications. 
• Shortlisted High-Potential Players: Applied filters including IP defensibility, R&D intensity, and delivery model scalability to narrow down the list of candidates. 
• Validated Organizational Fit: Conducted discreet interviews with ecosystem players, including ex-employees and suppliers, to assess operational maturity and leadership quality. 
• Assessed Strategic Alignment: Benchmarked each firm’s technology stack, service models, and partner networks against the client’s current and future roadmap. 

Key Findings 

• Several early-stage firms were innovating in process-specific automation with limited visibility outside their home countries.
• A few mid-stage companies offered scalable platforms but required investment in team and processes for long-term fit.
• Cultural and integration compatibility emerged as critical filters, eliminating a third of the technically sound targets.
• India presented the broadest base of IP-led innovation, while Vietnam and Thailand offered strong service execution in niche areas. 

Our Industry Coverage 

Mordor Intelligence supports M&A and partnership assessments across core industrial domains and adjacent technology verticals. Our work spans complex, multi-country screening and high-touch validation. 

• Competitor Assessment: Mapping innovation clusters and identifying disruptive or fast-scaling players in fragmented markets.
• M&A Due Diligence Support: Custom insights on leadership, capability alignment, and cultural fit beyond the standard financial metrics.
• Customer/Supplier/Distributor Discovery: Building partnership maps that highlight synergy and dependency pathways.
• Opportunity Assessment: Evaluating white spaces for product or service extensions via acquisition.
• Surveys, FGDs, and Primary Research Fieldwork: Conducting discreet outreach to validate intangible factors such as leadership credibility, execution reliability, and local trust.