According to data collected by Bloomberg, in the first three quarters of 2018, companies and PE/VCs from mainland China have reached 4,303 M&A transaction deals. The overall transaction amounts sum up to USD 440,87 billion.
In terms of number of deals, M&A transactions are still quite active for the first three quarters of this year in mainland China, much close to that of the same period last year. Almost 36% of them are cross-border M&A transactions as Chinese companies acquiring foreign targets.
Affected by the trade war between China and US, Chinese companies is having a growing preference for target firms located in Europe. Since this year, there have been 151 M&A deals achieved between Chinese acquirers and European targets, summing up to USD 56.24 billion with a growth rate of 81% from last year.
It is worth mentioning that, the average acquisition price premium for M&A in Europe is 30,66%, which is the highest point in the past five years. This reflects the enthusiastic pursuit of Chinese acquirers for European targets.
[1] Bloomberg 2018, ‘中国海外并购市场众生相：2018前三季度中国兼并收购排行榜’, 财联社, 06 October 2018, < https://www.cailianpress.com/depth/282050>