Nearly half of Asia’s larger companies are planning to make a significant acquisition in Europe over the next year, drawn by the availability of cheap assets amid the eurozone crisis, according to a survey by FTI Consulting, the FT reports. Some 45 per cent of Asian businesses quizzed in a poll of 800 companies around the world, all with at least 250 employees, said they were now looking to make strategic acquisitions in the region, as the eurozone’s problems have taken their toll on the valuation of businesses, particularly in the financial services sector. Lord Malloch-Brown, chairman of the European arm of FTI, said there was still unlikely to be a “rush to buy distressed Europe”, with continued nervousness among potential investors over the eurozone’s problems and timing and manner of any resolution of them. Reflecting those jitters, nearly a third of respondents in the FTI poll thought the euro would not survive 2012 intact.