Chinese M&A: Under orders to buy abroad

China’s mergers and acquisitions market is gathering steam after a couple of relatively quiet years. Elliot Wilson reports.

SINCE THE START of the year, the message has been filtering down to the heads of China’s leading state-owned enterprises from their political masters inside the State Council. Quietly at first, then with greater urgency, Beijing has been cajoling its leading corporate representatives to venture abroad in search of foreign markets, resources, brands and distribution channels.

If those often powerful but nonetheless timid SOE heads were at all unsure about their top priority, China’s central bank chief rammed home the point on September 9.

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