The record level of China merger and acquisition (M&A) activity seen in 2016 was not an isolated spike according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), but rather the new normal.
The professional services firm expects deal activity to drop slightly this year due to government restrictions and an uncertain global outlook, but they predict Chinese M&A activity will nonetheless remain strong in 2017, and hit new record highs in 2018.
According to PwC’s “M&A 2016 review and outlook”, Chinese outbound investment was a main driver of the growth, resulting in a 142 per cent jump in the number of transactions compared with 2015, and a 246 per cent increase in value terms.
In total, Chinese outbound deals tallied US$221 billion in 2016, according to PwC’s calculations from publically available data.
Overall deal volume involving China, including inbound, outbound and domestic M&A was worth US$770 billion, PwC said.
Full content: South China Morning Post
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