Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, acting as if on cue, are moving to block acquisitions of local businesses by Chinese companies.
Berlin, long open to Beijing's investments, has just retracted its clearance of the $729 million purchase of chipmaker Aixtron by Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund.
The move came just days before Berlin proposed EU rules giving member states the authority to stop Chinese takeovers in strategic sectors, especially when the potential acquirers are state entities. "We need to have the powers to really investigate deals when it is clear that they are driven by industrial policy or to enable technology transfers," said Deputy Economics Minister Matthias Machnig.
German officials are not the only group worried. China's largest foreign acquisition looks like it might run aground in Brussels. EU antitrust regulators have started a review of China National Chemical Corp.'s bid to buy Syngenta, the Swiss agribusiness giant, for $44 billion.
Even not counting the Aixtron and Syngenta deals, European regulators have blocked almost $40 billion in Chinese takeovers of businesses since the middle of 2015 according to Grisons Peak, an investment bank.
The blocking of acquisitions comes after a wave of Chinese investment. Grisons Peak puts the highpoint of China's purchases at $95.6 billion in the first quarter of this year. Since then, takeovers have trended down, with just $49.4 billion in Q2 and $46.1 billion in Q3.
In the U.S., this month it was reported that, due to concerns raised by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, Blackstone Group called off the sale of Hotel del Coronado to China's mysterious Anbang Insurance Group.
China really had this plan of investing to other countries pertaining to buy some of their investments and market so the said country can dominate. Many leaders reacted to this because they do not really agree on what China has been doing, Some rejected their offer some accepted it in terms of investments.
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