Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently published two articles on the rapid growth rate of the number of acquisitions Chinese companies have been making in Germany. Recent statistics show that, as of the present time, Chinese buyers have acquired around 200 German companies. The acquisitions are mainly in the automobile, mechanical manufacturing, electronics, and injection molding industries. The German economy was slowing down after 2011 and that provided the opportunity for the Chinese to buy financially troubled German companies. The German Ministry of Economic Affairs has recently been asked to protect the domestic high-tech companies from having unwanted buyers acquire them, especially those from non-EU countries. Germany recently proposed a set of EU-level investment screening rules. Any EU government would be allowed to block any acquisition seeking over a 25 percent stake in a company. The rules also add more restrictions if the investor is state-subsidized or state-owned, or if the investor is from a country that has market-entry restrictions against German investors. Not long ago, the Chinese government established a new strategy called, “Made in China 2025,” which is behind all these Chinese acquisitions. The new strategy is apparently modeled after the German “Industrial 4.0” strategy.
Source: Sina, October 23, 2016
http://finance.sina.com/gb/usstock/sinacn/20161023/17271513368.html
http://finance.sina.com/gb/economy/sinacn/20161023/21031513533.html