Chinese firms 'play fair' in global deals

Mainland firms have honest objectives in their efforts to acquire overseas assets, the head of one of China's biggest investment banks said yesterday, but political suspicions remain the biggest barrier to getting deals done.

Those tensions could be reduced as mainland companies explore a wider range of acquisition targets, moving away from natural resources and into less sensitive areas, researchers say, and that could fuel a flow of deals tipped to make the mainland the world's biggest outbound foreign direct investor by 2017.

The major concern facing mainland state-owned enterprises seeking to invest in the energy and resources sectors overseas was speculation they were committed to the political objectives of the central government, China International Capital Corp chairman Jin Liqun said yesterday at a forum in Beijing.

"When China wants to invest overseas in oil and gas, do we have no political objectives? Of course we have, because we want to have safe, guaranteed supply of energy," said Jin, who was formerly head of the supervisory board of China Investment Corp, the mainland's sovereign wealth fund.

But he said: "It's on the table. Don't worry about that. Our deal is fair, because it's of mutual benefit. These are honest objectives. We do everything under the law, of your country and mine."

Several mainland firms have encountered setbacks when seeking to invest in developed nations, such as the United States, due to national security concerns.