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Jodi Xu Klein

Chinese acquisitions of American companies plummeted 95 per cent last year from its peak two years ago as the escalating trade war dampened deal-making activity.
Purchases of US firms by Chinese buyers dropped to US$3 billion in 2018, continuing a descent from US$55.3 billion in 2016 and US$8.7 billion in 2017, according to the global research group Mergermarket.

This sharp decline contrasted with an 11.5 per cent increase, to US$3.53 trillion, in overall global mergers and acquisitions.
The drop in US purchases also took place while outbound merger activities in the Asia-Pacific saw a 52.4 per cent jump to reach US$160 billion from the year earlier, data shows.
HNA investigation may show US is opening new front in trade war with China
Chinese mergers and acquisitions in Europe increased 81.7 per cent to US$60.4 billion in the same period.
In May, China Three Gorges, a state-owned power company, announced that it had agreed to buy the remaining 76.7 per cent stake of Portuguese utility company Energias de Portugal SA. The deal, which is awaiting regulatory approval, was valued at US$10.8 billion and was the fifth-largest acquisition in Europe last year.
Will nationalist backlashes hurt China’s bid to attract foreign investment?
“Intensifying trade tensions, political instability and increased regulatory scrutiny took their toll on the number of deals struck over the year,” Mergermarket editor Elizabeth Lim said in the report.
Major Chinese buyers including HNA and Anbang, which had concluded headline-grabbing acquisitions in the US, have been pulling back since 2016 as the Chinese government looked to bring capital back to encourage domestic growth. US government efforts to tighten scrutiny of acquisitions by Chinese entities has compounded the pullback.


The Trump administration has stepped up efforts to clamp down on Chinese investments in the US. Congress passed a law in August that empowered an inter-agency body, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), to broaden the scope of reviews of Chinese acquisitions on national security grounds.
A number of large deals ran into trouble in 2018. Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial’s acquisition of US payment company MoneyGram was shot down over fears that information about US military personnel could be leaked to China. The fintech company is now looking to buy payment start-up WorldFirst in Britain. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
China to assess fairness of new US controls on foreign investments
Some of the biggest Chinese acquirers are now becoming sellers.
HNA, a conglomerate with business ranging from finance to aviation, has put assets including hotels, real estate and airlines on the market. The firm has hired China Development Bank to advise on the sales, which could amount to US$50 billion.
Will expanded US review throw the baby out with the bathwater?
Anbang, the gigantic holding company that started in the insurance business and has expanded to banking and financial services, has hired Bank of America to advise on the sale of its US luxury hotel portfolio worth of about US$10 billion.
The company is known for its aggressive global expansion, including its US$2 billion acquisition of New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel in 2014.


Chen Feng, founder of Chinese conglomerate HNA, sentenced to 12 years in prison

Hong Kong Airlines to open routes to Urumqi, Melbourne after resolving debt woes

Hong Kong Airlines to return to North America next year with Vancouver route

Hong Kong court adjourns winding-up trial of HNA Group by 6 weeks

HNA Group

Chinese acquisitions of US companies plunge 95 per cent in 2018 amid trade war

The Chinese conglomerate HNA is now selling assets, including hotels, real estate and airlines. Photo: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: An exterior view of the world famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel in midtown Manhattan in New York City, February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

It’s not just the US: around the world, doors are shutting on Chinese investment

US President Donald Trump during a signing ceremony August 13 for the defence bill that expanded the powers of the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Photo: AP

(L-R) German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, Lower Saxony's State Premier Stephan Weil and Germany's national football team's former goalkeeper Jens Lehmann look at a robot of Kuka at the booth of Schunk during a visit at the Hannover Messe trade fair for industrial technology on April 24, 2017 in Hanover, northern Germany. Poland is this year's partner country of the fair running until April 28, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Tobias SCHWARZ

Image: SCMP -- a chart showing Chinese investment in foreign companies that was blocked by the governments of the US, Canada and Germany.

Qualcomm Centriq branding sits on a motherboard on display at the Qualcomm Inc. stand during day two of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. At the wireless industry's biggest conference, more than 100,000 people are set to see the latest smartphones, artificial intelligence devices and autonomous drones exhibited by roughly 2,300 companies. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

A delivery man uses a phone near a building of China's ZTE Corp in Beijing, China, August 29, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Trade war shrinks Chinese companies’ first-half mergers and acquisitions in America

Chinese M&As in the US slump as trade war persists. Photo: Reuters

Solar panels containing photovoltaic cells float on water at the hydro electric dam project by EDP-Energias de Portugal SA's renewables unit, EDP Renovaveis SA in this aerial view at the Alto Rabago dam in Alto Rabago, Portugal, on Wednesday, June 20, 2018. France's Engie SA is among suitors considering a bid for the 7.3 billion-euro ($8.5 billion) renewables unit of EDP-Energias de Portugal SA, according to people with knowledge of the matter, adding a potential new twist to China Three Gorges Corp.'s pursuit of the company and its parent. Photographer: Daniel Rodrigues/Bloomber

Private equity-backed M&A in China stalls as investors put off deals amid trade war

During the first half private equity activity was robust in the Greater Bay area, which links Hong Kong and Shenzhen (pictured above) with nine Chinese cities into an integrated economic and business hub. Photo: Roy Issa

Deals affected by trade war

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Major buyers including HNA and Anbang have pulled back since 2016 as Beijing looked to bring capital back to encourage domestic growth
The sharp decline contrasted with an increase in global mergers and acquisitions by Chinese buyers, including a large buying spree in Europe


Major buyers including HNA and Anbang have pulled back since 2016 as Beijing looked to bring capital back to encourage domestic growth.


Chinese acquisitions of US companies plunge 95 per cent in 2018 amid trade war

Major buyers including HNA and Anbang have pulled back since 2016 as Beijing looked to bring capital back to encourage domestic growth The sharp decline contrasted with an increase in global mergers and acquisitions by Chinese buyers, including a large buying spree in Europe

Major buyers including HNA and Anbang have pulled back since 2016 as Beijing looked to bring capital back to encourage domestic growth

The sharp decline contrasted with an increase in global mergers and acquisitions by Chinese buyers, including a large buying spree in Europe