As the global financial crisis has depressed the value of overseas companies, making them more attractive to buyers, Chinese companies looking for energy and resources, as well as expertise and access to foreign markets, will likely increase their overseas mergers and acquisitions by about 40 percent next year, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a report today.
The value of such international deals is expected to hit a record high of $30 to $35 billion in 2009, three times higher than in 2008, the report predicted.
"Whilst deals for energy and resources will continue to dominate, owners of the larger Chinese privately owned enterprises are looking for know-how and access to foreign markets and deals in other sectors can also be expected to grow strongly," said Wang Xiaogang, PwC China Transactions Partner.
Still, the value of Chinese overseas M&A investments is only about a third of domestic and inbound transactions. Chinese companies' domestic mergers and acquisitions will probably increase by about 20 percent next year from an estimated $106.5 billion for 2009, according to the report.
