Managing The Dragon

During the first half of 2016, China’s outbound merger and acquisition volume of $135.3 billion surpassed the full year total for any year previously. Through June, Chinese companies accounted for 23 percent of all cross-border deals globally. It’s been a few years in the making, but 2016 is shaping up as the year in which […]

Many thanks to the team at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for their report, M&A 2014 Review and 2015 Outlook, which provides a comprehensive summary of mergers and acquisition activity in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PwC review illustrates why Institutional Investor, the pre-eminent investor magazine, has called Chinese companies “The New Force In Global M&A.” […]

In one of the larger overseas industrial acquisitions ever by a Chinese State-Owned Enterprise (“SOE”), Shanghai listed (600458.SS) Times New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (“TMT”) announced last week that it agreed to acquire the Rubber and Plastics Business Unit of ZF Friedrichshafen AG (“ZF”) for $399.3 million. While a number of billion-dollar plus overseas deals […]

This is the second article about the stalled acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: CTB) (“Cooper”) by India’s Apollo Tyres Ltd. (Bombai: APOLLOTYRE.BO) (“Apollo”). For background information click on to China’s Two Sides. Anyone doing business in China knows that establishing “mutual trust” with your partners, customers and colleagues is a key success […]

What a difference twenty years makes. In 1993, China’s auto industry was producing less than one million vehicles per year and there were no Chinese passenger car makers. In 2013 China will produce over twenty million vehicles, and Chinese companies account for 35 percent of the total passenger car market. In 1993 the likes of […]

Several weeks ago, the Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) was in the news when it announced that its affiliate, Jiangling Motors Corporation, Ltd. (JMC), has agreed to acquire 100 percent of Taiyuan Changan Heavy Truck Company (Taiyuan). For JMC, which currently makes light trucks and sports utility vehicles, this acquisition marks its first entry into China‘s […]

With annual sales of approximately 19 million vehicles, China’s auto industry is now, by far, the largest in the world. Not content to be the world’s volume leader, though, government and industry leaders now share a common objective: “To make China’s auto industry the innovation leader by 2020.” To underscore this objective, Clean Energy Vehicles […]

I may have been too hard on myself when assessing the accuracy of my predictions for 2011. At the beginning of last year, I predicted that 2011 would be a banner year for cross-border mergers and acquisitions between China and the United States and China and Europe. When reviewing how I did on my 2011 […]

When I predicted at the end of 2010 that 2011 would be a banner year for cross-border mergers and acquisitions between China and the United States and China and Europe, I was not alone. Many investment bankers, lawyers and accountants have been gearing up for what everyone believes will ultimately be a big surge in […]

With so much cash on Chinese company balance sheets, and the technology gaps that remain in many industries, it’s only natural that Chinese companies would begin to shop overseas to acquire needed technology and know-how. Two recent deals — one in auto parts, the other in planes — indicate where this trend is headed. In […]