The new trend of overseas investment by Chinese enterprises

According to the report of The Economist quoted by Tencent Finance, in 1989, Japan's Mitsubishi consortium bought the Rockefeller Center building in the United States for $1.4 billion, which seems to be a symbol of the rise of Japan and the decline of the United States. But then the yen appreciated, Japan's real estate bubble burst, and the economy slumped. A few years later, the Americans took advantage of the bursting of Japan's economic bubble and bought Rockefeller Center back at a low price. The Japanese lost a total of more than 1 billion US dollars. In recent years, the surging overseas mergers and acquisitions of Chinese enterprises have become the focus of attention of all parties. Therefore, The Economist asks: Has China reached the "Rockefeller Center moment"?

Fosun International recently announced that it will spend US$725 million to buy the 60-story Chase Manhattan Plaza Building, one of the two landmark buildings of the Rockefeller family, from JPMorgan Chase. The purchase price is equivalent to RMB per square meter 21712 yuan. Prior to this, Greenland Group announced to invest US$5 billion in the Atlantic Plaza real estate project in Brooklyn, New York, which has become the largest single real estate project in New York in 20 years, and is also the largest investment by a Chinese real estate company in the United States so far. In addition, a consortium including the family of Zhang Xin, CEO of SOHO China, also acquired a 40% stake in the General Motors building in Manhattan earlier this year.

Michael Cohen of Australian real estate agency Colliers International points out that, Although Fosun International had to give the outdated Chase Manhattan Plaza building a new look, "the price per square meter seems very cheap." You must know that the transaction unit price of less than 22,000 yuan/㎡ is only about half of the current selling price of Guangzhou Zhujiang New Town office buildings, and netizens have exclaimed that this price is not as good as the level of Beijing Sixth Ring Road and Shanghai Outer Ring.

According to the People's Daily, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, Shen Danyang, said a month ago that the rapid growth of China's foreign investment will continue, and it may not be long before the scale of China's foreign investment will exceed The scale of foreign investment in China.

Experts believe that in recent years, with the continuous enhancement of their own strength and the gradual improvement of policy support, Chinese enterprises have significantly accelerated the pace of globalization, actively implemented the "going out" strategy, and entered the international market. Although the experience, capability and level of Chinese enterprises' cross-border investment and operation need to be improved, China's foreign investment will still maintain a strong momentum of development, and there is huge room for growth in the future.

The rapid growth of foreign investment "may exceed the scale of foreign investment"

Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that from January to August this year, Chinese domestic investors conducted a total of 3,583 overseas enterprises in 156 countries and regions around the world. In terms of direct investment, the accumulative non-financial direct investment reached US$56.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18.5%. The foreign direct investment of my country's local enterprises was 18.69 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 21.6%, accounting for 33.1% of the total foreign direct investment in the same period, 3.1 percentage points higher than the national growth rate. "We are still optimistic about the situation of Chinese companies going global in the future. It may not be long before the scale of China's foreign investment will exceed the scale of China's foreign investment," said Shen Danyang.

According to the "2012 Statistical Bulletin of China's Outward Direct Investment" jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in 2012, in the context of a 17% drop in global foreign direct investment outflow compared to the previous year , China's foreign direct investment reached a record high of 87.8 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 17.6%, and for the first time became one of the world's top three foreign investors.

Private enterprises join the investment wave, brand and technology become the target

The first wave of China's foreign investment mostly originated from some state-owned enterprises, mainly in the fields of energy, minerals and land in poor countries. However, the demand for resources is no longer the driving force for Chinese enterprises to invest abroad. According to The Economist, the new purpose is sparking a "second wave" of outbound investment by Chinese companies.

In this second wave of outbound investment, private companies seeking brands and technologies have played an important role. Chinese automaker Geely has acquired Sweden's Volvo. Dongfeng Motor Corp is considering buying a stake in France's Peugeot-Citroen. Meanwhile, Lenovo Group is preparing to bid for Canada's Blackberry. Statistics show that in 2012, the share of China's foreign investment pouring into rich countries has been climbing, from one-tenth in 2002 to two-thirds. Like Japan's past experience, Chinese companies may also suffer losses. However, the change in the positioning of foreign investment is a positive signal.