Voice from China – 1st edition 2018

QUARTERLY UPDATE ON THE M&A MARKET IN CHINA:

As we begin 2018, we continue to see a drop in Chinese outbound M&A activities. In the first quarter of this year, 25 Chinese outbound transactions were closed, compared to 35 in the last quarter of 2017. New regulations by China’s National Development and Reform Commission went into effect on 1 March 2018 in order to allow the government to more carefully examine Chinese overseas investment. These reforms affect China’s cross-border M&A market. As well, possible tightening of EU laws and an expansion in the scope of the US Committee on Foreign Investment is making it harder for Chinese enterprises to pursue overseas goals. So far this year, five Chinese enterprise acquisition attempts of US targets failed. The prospect of a US–China trade war adds further concerns and uncertainty to the M&A market.  

In this first edition of Voice from China for 2018, our local Oaklins specialist, John Zhang, gives an overview of China’s cross-border landscape.