The Era of Chinese Multinationals

2

Chinese firms venturing abroad

Abstract

Since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), China has ranked among the top 10 global investors. In 2017 alone, China was the third largest investor in the world, investing $158 billion overseas, representing 11.1% of total world flows and 5.9% of the world’s OFDI stock. Over the last decade, Chinese companies have become leading global acquirers. Using mergers and acquisitions (M&As) data from Capital IQ and MOFCOM, we focus on the countries and industries where Chinese firms make the most investments. We also study the underlying rationale driving these investments. Greenfield investments and M&A transactions have been the main catalysts for the growth of Chinese firms. M&As has been a significant ...