Chinese
companies are headed overseas as part of a strategy to diversify
their businesses.
It seems like almost every week there's an
announcement of a new overseas acquisition.
But
what exactly are Chinese companies spending their money on - and what
does that tell us about the direction the economy is headed in?
Chinese firms are on a record-breaking
shopping spree, snapping up foreign firms like never before.
They have already
announced a whopping $108.5 billion in foreign deals so far this
year, topping the $106 billion total for the whole of last year,
according to the research firm Dealogic.
Chinese firms are also
spending far more on average -- there have been 281 deals announced
this year, versus 611 in 2015.
The largest single deal
came in early February, when ChemChina offered a whopping $48 billion
for Swiss company Syngenta (SYENF), a global supplier of pesticides
and seeds.
Many of the announced
deals still need to be approved by regulators -- a requirement that
has already sunk several proposed acquisitions due to concerns over
national security.
In the U.S., foreign deals are vetted by a number
of regulatory bodies, including the Committee on Foreign Investment
in the U.S.
Roughly a week later, a Chinese company dropped an investment in tech firm Western Digital (WDC) after U.S. regulators said they would investigate the transaction.
The spending record would have been shattered even earlier in the year, if Chinese insurer Anbang's $14 billion bid for Starwood Hotels (HOT) had been successful.
Anbang dropped its offer after a bidding war with Marriott International, attributing the decision to "various market conditions."
Here are the top four China outbound deals announced in so far in 2016:
1. ChemChina - Syngenta, $48 billion
2. Tianjin Tianhai Investment - Ingram Micro, $6.3 billion
3. Haier - GE's appliance business, $5.4 billion
4. Zoomlion Heavy - Terex Corp., $4.8 billion
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