New programme arms SMEs with M&A and joint venture tools to help plug knowledge gaps

SINGAPORE – Local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now being offered a leg-up on growth through a new programme to help them expand through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures and consortiums.

The initiative, launched by the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) on Dec 3, will promote collaboration, improve literacy on partnership models and connect SMEs to deal hunters, experts, funding and professional services through a deal-sourcing and resource aggregation platform.

In a study of 211 respondents in early 2025, the trade body found that while 60 per cent of SMEs are open to M&As and partnerships, 82 per cent rated their knowledge of the process as being poor or basic.

Only 13 per cent were satisfied with the professional services for their segment, citing cost and complexity as barriers.

The programme, called SME UNITE (Unifying Networks, Integration and Teaming for Enterprises), was launched by ASME on Dec 3 at SGX Centre.

ASME president Ang Yuit said he expects the initiative to benefit firms with less than $20 million in revenue the most, the ones least likely to have access to resources.

He said: “The challenge for most small and micro businesses, particularly, is that they are always residing only in Singapore...

“And traditionally, they have relied on the Singapore market to sustain them before they get stronger to go overseas.”

But the ways of global trade have changed, and SMEs can no longer take the same route, he said.

ASME, which also introduced its newly elected 29th council at the launch, announced that it will lead business missions to key markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and China in 2026.

Lined up in the first three months of next year is a trip to the Chinese city of Chongqing focused on finding market entry and expansion opportunities, with more destinations to follow.

The trade association also plans to conduct joint business exploration trips with Chinese entrepreneurs.

Mr Ang said: “There’s just so much demand from the Chinese companies coming in, as well as Chinese provinces and cities hoping that Singapore companies can go over there.”

To provide ground support, ASME said it is partnering the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants to tap the latter’s professional services centres in Shanghai in China, as well as Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Singapore has about 355,000 SMEs, representing 99 per cent of all enterprises and employing 71 per cent of the country’s workforce.

ASME, one of the first business groups to point out how local SMEs have been squeezed by intense competition from Chinese firms venturing into Singapore with their native supply chains in tow, started developing a strategy for local SMEs to partner and learn from Chinese firms earlier in 2025.

Mr Lee Swee Siong, who chairs the group leading SME UNITE, said a network of trade associations, knowledge partners, professional services firms such as legal, accounting and valuation firms, as well as business model transformation firms, is currently being put together.

The programme should be up and running within the first three months of 2026.

In the meantime, the association is already working on cases and welcomes inquiries, he said. Applicants need not be ASME members.

Mr Lee hopes the programme will address barriers that now hinder SMEs from joining forces or hunting as a pack.

For example, some proprietors put up arbitrary and unrealistic valuations on their businesses, so no deals are made as a result, he said.

“There’s also the trust factor. If five parties were to come together, who is to be the coordinator or the leader? And can the other four trust them? This programme aims to address those issues.”