With the Chinese economy slowing and strong interest in international expansion, Chinese companies did a dramatic turnaround and for the first time bought more foreign companies, rather than the other way around.
KPMG said Wednesday that China’s outbound merger and acquisition (M&A) volume exceeded inbound deals in the second half of 2015
The global accounting firm said the volume of inbound M&A deals from developed countries into China plummeted 55% to just 35 between July and December 2015, the lowest number in at least 10 years, according to KPMG’s analysis. That was down from 77 deals six months earlier.
In the meantime, Chinese outbound investment in developed markets climbed 5% to 62 M&A deals, the highest six-month total in the past decade, according to the analysis. The US was the most popular destination, with 12 deals, followed by nine in Australia.
The emerging markets region was the most active with Chinese investments rising 78% to 16 deals.
Chinese private and state-owned companies are aggressively looking to acquire new technology and enter new markets in order to become stronger domestically and more internationally competitive, said Ryan Reynoldson, head of transaction services at KPMG China.
“Economic concerns about China are real, but are not necessarily a huge damper on the M&A market in the medium term,” said Reynoldson.
The report tracked agreements between 15 developed economies and 13 emerging economies.