Mergers and acquisitions by Chinese companies in countries that are part of the Belt and Road initiative are soaring, even as Beijing cracks down on China's acquisitive conglomerates to restrict capital outflows.
Chinese acquisitions in the 68 countries officially linked to the president Xi Jinping's signature foreign policy totalled US$33 billion as of Monday, surpassing the $31bn tally for all of 2016, according to Reuters data.
Unveiled in 2013, the Belt and Road project is aimed at building a modern-day "Silk Road", connecting China by land and sea to South East Asia, Pakistan and Central Asia, and beyond to the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
At a summit in May, president Xi pledged $124bn for the plan, but it has faced suspicion in western capitals that it is intended more to assert Chinese influence than Beijing's professed desire to spread prosperity.
The surge in Chinese companies' acquisition-linked investments in the Belt and Road corridor comes as the volume of all outbound mergers and acquisitions from China has dropped 42 per cent year-on-year as of Monday, the Reuters data showed.
Beijing's move to prop up the yuan by restricting the flow of capital outside the country and clamp down on debt-fuelled acquisitions to ensure financial stability has made it tougher for buyers to win approvals for deals abroad.
Regulators have tightened the screws further since June, reviewing deal agreements in minute detail and ordering a group of lenders to assess their exposure to offshore acquisitions by several big companies that have been on overseas buying sprees, including HNA Group, Dalian Wanda Group and Fosun Group.
The heightened regulatory scrutiny of overseas acquisitions comes after companies spent a record $220bn in 2016 on assets overseas, buying up everything from movie studios to European football clubs.
The scrutiny, however, has not impacted Chinese companies' pursuit of targets along the Belt and Road corridor, as those investments are considered strategic for the companies as well as the Chinese economy.
"People are thinking in a long-term approach when making investments along Belt and Road countries," said Hilary Lau, a corporate and commercial lawyer and partner at the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills.
"The acquisitions are also policy-driven. There are funds allocated by Chinese banks and state funds for Belt and Road deals," he said.
The number of Chinese deals targeting Belt and Road countries totalled 109 this year, compared to 175 in the whole of last year and 134 in 2015, the Reuters data showed.
Companies enjoy a relatively smooth approval process for deals along the Belt and Road project as regulators tend to put them in a different basket when reviewing outbound investments, according to lawyers and deal makers.
"If you are doing One Belt, One Road, that becomes the first sentence in the document" to the regulators, said a senior investment adviser at a Chinese company that has acquired several overseas businesses.
"It is a wise thing to point out early on," said the adviser, who requested anonymity.
The largest deal in a Belt and Road country so far this year was a Chinese consortium's $11.6bn buyout of the Singapore-based Global Logistics Properties.
Other top deals include the $1.8bn purchase of an 8 per cent ownership interest in the Abu Dhabi oil company Adco by the state-owned oil giant China National Petroleum Corp, and HNA Group's $1 billion acquisition of a logistics company, CWT Ltd, which has not yet closed.
The Asian country’s largest oil and gas company, also plans to consolidate its various subsidiaries in Dubai into a large new office and warehouse complex at Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza).
The new headquarters covers a 55,000 square metres space and includes a 10,000 sq metres multi-storey office and warehouse facility for storage, maintenance and repair of oil and gas equipment, Jafza said in a statement. CNPC’s presence in the region includes major developments in Iraq, where Zhu Junfeng, CNPC’s chief executive for the Middle East, was based from 2009 until his elevation to Middle East head in 2015. His projects included the Halfaya oilfield in southern Iraq, development of which has moved much slower than originally planned but is now set to double production from 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 400,000 bpd by next year under an agreement that will delay CNPC payments until the oil revenue from that increase comes onstream.
CNPC agreed in February to pay Dh6.5 billion for its stake in Adco, which is on track to boost output to 1.8 million bpd by next year from 1.6 million bpd in 2015. China’s CEFC China Energy Company, a private conglomerate, also bought 4 per cent of Adco, with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s chief Sultan Al Jaber saying that he wanted new innovative partnerships that would bring new technology and/or open up new markets.
Mr Zhu said the new Jafza complex will bring together staff and operations from 16 CNPC subsidiaries, which include oil services unit China Petroleum Engineering and its more than 400 Dubai-based employees, as well as Chinaoil, a joint venture with Sinochem Group that has become a major force in physical and derivative trading in the region. Its main subsidiary is the publicly-listed PetroChina.
The state administration of foreign exchange, China's foreign exchange regulator, said this month that domestic companies would still be encouraged to participate in Belt and Road activities.
HNA, which has seen at least two overseas deals hit a hurdle as a result of the crackdown on transferring money, has said it plans to prioritise investments that are in industries and regions mapped out under the Belt and Road initiative.
The belt and road acquisitions are predominantly in energy and infrastructure sectors, said Hilary Lau of Herbert Smith Freehills.
"We've seen a lot of activities recently in Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar. The whole Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh corridor is also hot as it's connecting the East and West," he said.
In the West, renewable energy projects are gaining favour although competition is fierce.
Aviva and China Resources Power are among companies considering bids for Statkraft’s stakes in its offshore UK wind farms, people familiar with the matter said, amid a surge in interest for Europe’s green energy assets.
Macquarie Group and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners K/S are also weighing offers, the people said, asking not to be identified. Statkraft is aiming to sell the assets for $1 billion to $1.5 billion, according to one of the people. Bidders may only be willing to pay about $750 million to $1 billion for the two stakes, two of the people said.
No final decisions have been made, and the companies could still decide against a bid, the people said. A spokesman for Statkraft said the company couldn’t comment on an ongoing process, beyond saying that it hopes to wrap up the sale “around New Year’s.” A representative for Macquarie declined to comment, while representatives for Aviva, China Resources Power and CIP didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Statkraft, the Norwegian state-owned energy company, is selling its 40 per cent holding in the Sheringham Shoal wind farm and its 30 per cent stake in the Dudgeon project. The company decided in 2015 to halt new investments in offshore wind power, which it deemed too capital intensive. the chief executive Irene Egset said in July that a process to divest wind assets had begun.
The company is running separate sale processes for the stakes, but interested buyers can bid for both, one of the people said. Statkraft is seeking binding offers by early November, the person said.
Any deal would add to the $6bn of acquisitions announced this year targeting European alternative energy assets, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Wind-related businesses have proven popular with bidders as countries in the region push for greater reliance on renewable energy sources.
Last year, Gamesa Tecnologica and Siemens agreed to merge businesses to create one of the world’s biggest wind-turbine manufacturers. The Spanish wind-power firm Eolia Renovables de Inversiones SCR has drawn interest from Shanghai Electric Power and Spanish electricity company Endesa.
