China sees record-high M&A in 2015: Thomson Reuters

BEIJING -- Despite a slowdown in the third quarter, the value of announced mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving Chinese companies reached a record high of $477.2 billion for the current year, surpassing last year's volume, Thomson Reuters announced Wednesday.

Focus Media Technology Shanghai Co Ltd announced its plans to relist in China through a reserve merger (also known as backdoor listing) with Hedy Holdings in a deal valued at $9.1 billion, after terminating its first attempt with Jiangsu Hongda New Material Co Ltd.

The merger pushed the high technology sector to capture a majority of China's deal-making activity with a 17.9-percent market share worth $85.3 billion, up 143.4 percent over a year ago and the highest first nine months ever in terms of value for high-tech M&A involving China, the data provider reported.

In contrast, deals in the financial sector, which accounted for a majority of the market share last year, declined 15.4 percent in value to $62.2 billion compared to $73.5 billion in the first nine months of 2014, according to Thomson Reuters.

Outbound acquisitions by Chinese companies hit their highest level on record with $77.5 billion worth of transactions, up 91.2 percent from the same period last year.

Industrial sector deals accounted for 21.7 percent of China's outbound acquisitions in terms of value with $16.8 billion, up 360.7 percent from the first nine months of 2014.

China's overseas acquisitions in Europe witnessed a record high with 89.1 percent growth in value to $27.5 billion compared to the first nine months of 2014 ($14.6 billion).

Foreign firms targeting Chinese companies remained almost unchanged with $33.8 billion in mergers and acquisitions, a minimal increase of 0.5 percent in value from the first nine months of 2014.

The average disclosed M&A deal grew to $146.4 million compared to $112.8 million in the first nine months of 2014, as there were more transactions above $3 billion involving Chinese companies this year, said Thomson Reuters.