Mergers and acquisitions in China will remain subdued for the rest of the year after the value of deals more than halved in the first six months, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) said.
Companies announced 1,427 deals valued at US$45.8 billion in the first half, compared with 1,812 transactions worth US$101.3 billion a year earlier, PwC said.
“Confidence is seeping back into the domestic economy, but investment by foreign buyout firms or other financial investors is unlikely to reach 2008 levels until 2011,” Benjamin Ye (葉常青), a Shanghai-based partner at PwC’s Transaction Services division, told reporters in the city yesterday.
China’s GDP expanded 7.9 percent in the second quarter as the nation became the first major economy to rebound from the global recession, helping drive consolidation in industries such as steel, cement and financial services.
Ping An Insurance (Group) Co (中國平安), China’s second-biggest insurer, on June 12 agreed to pay US$3.2 billion to boost its stake in Shenzhen Development Bank Co (深圳發展銀行) to almost 30 percent from 4.68 percent, making it the biggest transaction on China this year.
Meanwhile, China’s planned small-company stock exchange received 108 applications for initial public offerings (IPO) on its first day of accepting proposals as its launch nears, a state news agency said yesterday.
The Growth Enterprise Board planned for the southern financial center of Shenzhen is meant to nurture smaller, innovative companies. The government has not said when trading will start, but analysts expect the first IPO in October or November.
The board began taking applications on Sunday, the Xinhua news agency said. It said regulators would need three months to review each application.
Authorities have promised for several years to create an exchange to help smaller and private companies that struggle to raise money in a system where state-owned banks lend mostly to big state-owned companies.
The launch comes at a time when Chinese markets are recovering from a sharp decline last year. The benchmark index has risen 80 percent this year amid government stimulus spending to counter the global downturn.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
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