Australia’s “animal spirits” may still be emerging from hibernation, but the same can’t be said of the foreign investors pursuing acquisitions of the country’s firms.

According to accounts in the Australian media of a forthcoming report by the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, the country had a resurgence of mega deals, valued at AUD1 billion or more, through the financial year that ended June 30.

These types of deals were at a six-year high in the recent fiscal year, with 15 competitive bids involving eight targets, nearly three times the number in the previous year. The total dollar value of these deals amounted to AUD38 billion, up from just AUD5 billion in the prior period.

And the pace of these large deals is expected to be sustained in the current financial year. The law firm’s partner Simon Reed observed that this level of deal flow is “one of the clear indicators that offshore purse strings have been loosened.” And he noted that private-equity firms have re-entered the market.

One of the primary attractions for foreign investors is Australia’s declining exchange rate, which has fallen from a cycle high of USD1.10 in mid-2011 to USD0.893 more recently.

In fact, the Australian Edge Portfolios were recently the beneficiaries of two such deals.

First, there was former Conservative Portfolio Holding Envestra Ltd, which was the subject of a bidding war between gas giant APA Group (ASX: APA, OTC: APAJF) and Cheung Kong Group, a Hong Kong-based consortium controlled by one of Asia’s richest men, Li Ka-Shing.

The latter’s offer of AUD1.32 per share, for a deal valued at AUD2.4 billion, ultimately won over Envestra’s shareholders.

The opening salvo in the year-long drama began in July 2013, with APA’s initial offer of a stock-for-stock deal that equated to AUD1.07 per share and was subsequently rejected. The winning bid from CKG represented a 24.5 percent premium to Envestra’s closing share price prior to APA’s original bid.

And fellow Conservative Portfolio Holding Australand Property Group Ltd was the subject of a similar drama earlier this year.

Stockland Corp Ltd (ASX: SGP, OTC: STKAF) first made a run at the real estate investment trust (REIT), but then Singapore-based real estate company Frasers Centrepoint Ltd (OTC: FRZCF), which is controlled by Thai beer billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, swooped in with a superior all-cash offer of AUD4.48 per share, for a deal valued at AUD2.6 billion.

Both of these bidding wars highlight the fact that takeover offers are trumping schemes of arrangement, a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed by Nick Sims, Goldman Sachs’ head of mergers and acquisitions in Australia.

According to The Australian, takeover offers afford bidders more flexibility to increase their price, waive conditions and extend timelines. At the same time, outright takeovers are more aggressive and, therefore, inherently riskier than schemes of arrangement since, as Mr. Sims notes, the bidder can end up with a substantial stake in a firm, but still be spurned by shareholders.

The two aforementioned deals also show that Asian firms are likely to continue to be key players in this arena. Indeed, Mr. Reed said, Asian bidders have entered the fray with a “clear directive to bid aggressively on attractive assets.”

But it’s the middle market, where firms range in value from AUD100 million to AUD1 billion, that could really heat up in the near to medium term, according to industry insiders cited by The Sydney Morning Herald. That realm is the principal focus of private-equity firms, and it’s been comparatively quiet recently.