Chinese firms eye strong EU brands, survey says

Cash-rich Chinese companies are eyeing strong brands as a key goal when making merger and acquisition deals in Europe despite their concerns about reputation risk, a survey by international law firm Clifford Chance has said.

The survey, released on Tuesday, was conducted among senior executives from almost 400 large companies globally in different industries, of which 122 come from the Asia-Pacific region. Over half of the companies in the survey have annual revenues of more than $1 billion each.

Asia-Pacific companies generally have strong financial capabilities and 87.1 percent of Chinese respondents prefer to use cash reserves to finance M&A deals, the poll found.