China M&A: Outbound boom set to slow

Despite a strong 2007, fuelled by a rising renminbi, China’s outbound announced M&A performance has slowed down sharply in 2008. According to Dealogic estimates, Chinese companies announced $43.9 billion of outbound M&A deals so far this year, compared to $74 billion last year. That is still way ahead of India and Russia, on $21 billion and $14 billion respectively, but down on past years.

The trend is ominours. In the future, China will have to face the fact that the global economic landscape has changed and that other countries view its economic model, which involves numerous ...