China Outbound M&A Plummets to 10-Year Low on Trade Tensions, Economic Slowdown

China Outbound M&A Plummets to 10-Year Low on Trade Tensions, Economic Slowdown
An investor looks at computer screens showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China on May 6, 2019. Aly Song/Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

HONG KONG—China’s outbound mergers and acquisitions (M&As) clocked their weakest year in a decade in 2019, as an escalated U.S.-China trade war and tightened regulatory scrutiny of Chinese companies impacted appetite for overseas dealmaking.

Chinese acquirers announced $41 billion in outbound deals this year, nearly halving from 2018 and less than a fifth of the 2016 peak, showed data from Refinitiv. The number was only slightly higher than 2009 when dealmaking plunged after the financial crisis.