Chinese companies invested less overseas in 2017

Chinese companies' overseas investments cooled down in 2017 in terms of case number and transaction volume, according to the latest survey jointly released by Hurun Report and the Shanghai-based merger and acquisition advisory firm DealGlobe.

According to the 2018 China Enterprise Cross-border M&A Special Report released Thursday, Chinese companies made 400 overseas M&A's in 2017, down 1.7 percent from a year earlier. Among these investments, 312 disclosed their transaction volume, which has declined 28 percent year-on-year to come at 960 billion yuan ($152 billion).

The transaction volume of the top 100 M&A's has contracted by 37 percent year-on-year to reach 880 billion yuan. The largest investment came from the consortium led by Hopu Investment, Hillhouse Capital Group, Bank of China Group Investment Limited and Vanke Group, which spent 104 billion yuan in acquiring an over 78 percent stake in the Singaporean industrial giant GLP Group.

Chinese companies were most interested in investing in the manufacturing industry last year. The technology industry overtook financial services to become the second hottest industry for overseas investments, with retail, energy and public facilities in trailing positions on the list of investment vibrancy.

The United States and Hong Kong both saw 16 M&A's last year, becoming the most favored investment destinations. However, Chinese mainland companies made 30 overseas investments in the US in 2016, while that same year the number in Hong Kong was merely two.

The Belt and Road Initiative has provided new investment opportunities for Chinese companies. The total M&A volume made by Chinese companies in the countries and regions involved in the initiative came in at 240 billion yuan in 2017, up 25 percent year-on-year.