【英语财经】今年首季中资海外收购规模创纪录 Big-ticket foreign deals take China to its largest share of global M&A

China has claimed its largest quarterly share of global mergers and acquisitions on record, with takeovers by mainland companies of foreign rivals accounting for almost one-sixth of all deal activity.

Led by a host of aggressive and politically connected acquirers — such as ChemChina, Dalian Wanda and Anbang Insurance — Chinese companies have emerged as a dynamic force in dealmaking in a number of sectors.

Their choice of target companies highlights China’s attempt to serve its growing consumer class, as it copes with sharp declines in its stock market and economic growth prospects.

Of the $682bn in global deal activity in the first three months of 2016, $101bn, or 15 per cent, involved Chinese buyers, according to Thomson Reuters data. At this level, the value of outbound Chinese deals has already nearly eclipsed the annual record of $109bn, set in 2015.

“The global M&A landscape has been transformed by the wave of Chinese outbound M&A deals in first-quarter 2016,” said Colin Banfield, head of mergers and acquisitions at Citigroup in Asia-Pacific.

This rapid rise has astounded western dealmakers, many of whom were caught off-guard by the surge — and wince privately that Chinese buyers are among the most frugal when it comes to paying banking fees.

Advisers and analysts have attributed part of this boom to broader concerns over the stability of the renminbi, China’s currency, and suggested that the rapid pick-up in deals in some ways resembles capital flight.

Dealmakers say Chinese acquirers have been aided by an abundance of easy borrowing from China’s state banks, which remain eager to approve loans for assets often deemed safer than those based in China, given a slowing domestic economy.

Deals in the quarter included the biggest ever Chinese takeover of a foreign company, when ChemChina, the sprawling chemicals group, agreed a $43.8bn all-cash deal to buy Swiss agribusiness Syngenta.

Chinese dealmaking has eased a big slowdown in overall M&A, which suffered a 57 per cent drop, quarter on quarter, after an unprecedented $1.6tn of transactions in the last three months of 2015. In annual terms, the decline in first-quarter deal value was 14 per cent.

US M&A activity dropped off most sharply: $256.6bn of deals represented a 29 per cent fall from a year earlier and ranked as the lowest level of any quarter in nearly two years. In Europe, activity was modestly higher at $181.6bn.

“The sheer volume of Chinese deals highlights the sharp decline in M&A otherwise,” said Alain Klein, a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. “Chinese companies have a bigger share of the overall volume simply because there were fewer deals globally. It is striking to see the fall in activity in the US.”

中国创下在单季度海外并购中占比的最高纪录，中国内地企业对海外企业的收购交易在所有交易活动中的占比达到近六分之一。

在一系列收购意识较强且有政界人脉的收购方——比如中国化工(ChemChina)、大连万达(Dalian Wanda)和安邦保险(Anbang Insurance)——的带领下，中国企业在很多行业成了交易主力。

（编者按：根据最新的消息，安邦已经在喜达屋竞购战中输给了万豪国际。）

他们选择的目标企业突显出，在应对国内股市大幅下跌及经济增长前景黯淡之际，中国试图迎合国内日益壮大的消费者阶层的需求。

汤森路透(Thomson Reuters)数据显示，2016年第一季度，全球交易活动的规模6820亿美元，其中1010亿美元（即15%）涉及中国买方。以这一水平来看，中国第一季度境外交易总额逼近2015年全年1090亿美元的交易纪录。

“2016年第一季度中国境外并购交易潮已经改变了全球并购版图，”花旗集团(Citigroup)亚太区全球跨境并购部主管彭高年(Colin Banfield)称。

这种快速崛起令西方交易撮合者感到惊讶，其中很多人对此轮收购潮措手不及——并在私下对中国企业在支付银行费用的问题上最不情愿表示犯怵。

顾问和分析师认为，此轮收购潮的部分原因在于对人民币汇率稳定的整体担忧，他们还提出，交易迅速增加在某些方面与资本外流类似。

交易撮合者称，中国收购方得到了中国国有银行大量宽松贷款的帮助。在中国经济增长放缓的情况下，国有银行仍然渴望为往往被视为比国内资产更安全的境外资产批准贷款。

2016年第一季度的交易包括有史以来最大规模的中国海外收购案：庞大的中国化工同意斥资438亿美元全现金收购瑞士农业企业先正达(Syngenta)。

中国企业海外并购潮缓解了全球整体并购大幅减速的局面——在2015年第四季度创下1.6万亿美元的交易纪录后，本季度全球并购规模下滑了57%。按年度比较，第一季度交易总值同比下滑了14%。

美国并购活动降幅最为明显：2566亿美元的交易总值较上一年下降了29%，是近两年来交易规模最低的季度。在欧洲，并购规模小幅增加至1816亿美元。

“中资交易规模迅速攀升，突显了其他地区并购活动急剧减少，”盛信律师事务所(Simpson Thacher & Bartlett)的合伙人阿兰?克莱恩(Alain Klein)称，“中国企业在整体并购活动中的占比上升只是因为全球交易减少了。美国并购活动下滑令人瞩目。”

译者/马柯斯