China Inc. Tries to Buy the World, with Impeccable Timing

Jon Blogosphere, Fiscal Policies, Geopolitics, Market Commentary

The new king of foreign M&A, at peak prices, funded by state-owned banks.
Not even five-and-a-half months into the year, Chinese mergers & acquisitions in other countries have hit $110.8 billion, nearly four times as much as during the same period last year, and surpassing the total volume of the entire year 2015 ($106.8 billion).
And so China Inc. has become the number one cross-border acquirer for the first time ever, ahead of Canada with $67.7 billion in deals, and the US with $53.1 billion.
The superlatives go on: the number of deals soared 79% year-over-year to 300, according to the Nikkei. Of these, 17 were mega-deals of $1 billion or more, up from six such deals last year.
The US, where equity prices have peaked after a seven-year QE-and-ZIRP-fueled rally, and where total M&A through April has plunged 21%, according to Dealogic, and where withdrawn or collapsed deals have hit a record high as of May 4 of $378 billion – well, that market has now become the number one destination of the Chinese shopping spree.

This post was published at Wolf Street by Wolf Richter ‘ May 11, 2016.