Chinese firms' overseas M&As in H1 up 46pct y-o-y, focusing on energy, power

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- In the first half of the year, the amount of overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As) implemented by the Chinese enterprises stood at 76.6 billion U.S. dollars, representing a year-on-year increase of 46 percent, according to the Securities Daily.

During the period, about 40 percent of the overseas M&As launched by the Chinese enterprises took place in the energy and power industries, involving 31.5 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 386.8 percent year on year.

In the first quarter, the amount of overseas M&As was about 14.4 billion U.S. dollars, down 52.1 percent year on year. Despite the fall, the amount increased month by month after entering the second quarter. In June alone, the number of overseas M&As implemented by the Chinese listed companies was more than 20.

For example, at the end of June, United Energy Group Limited (00467.HK) announced that it completed the acquisition of assets of OMEG and OMVEP in Pakistan. OMEG and OMVEP are mainly engaged in the natural gas business and were acquired by the United Energy for 80.61 million euros and 77.22 million euros, respectively (a total of approximately 1.51 billion yuan).

The listed company said that the acquisition will expand its upstream oil and gas business in Pakistan.

In addition, acquisitions in the nuclear power field also attract the attention. For example, On July 17, CGN Europe Energy, a subsidiary of the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), signed an equity transfer agreement with Macquarie and General Electric Company (GE) to buy a 75-percent stake in the Swedish North Pole wind power project.

Earlier, CGN publicly stated that the acquisition of this Swedish project would enable its European company to enter the Nordic market and bring the capacity of renewable energy assets under construction and operation to nearly 1.6 million kilowatts.