China reported record number of mergers and acquisitions in the first half of the year, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said on Thursday.
The number of M&A deals increased 10 percent from the second half of last year to 4,559, a new record, the auditing company said in a research note. The value of the M&As increased 60 percent to 352 billion U.S. dollars.
Tech firms, financial service companies and property developers are the top targets for M&As, said Liu Yanlai, private equity leader with PwC China.
PwC forecast a record year of M&As, driven by the tech sector including Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu. M&As could slow it in the second half of the year due to the volatile capital market.
PwC also said the Chinese companies made record M&As overseas in the Jan.-June period, up 17 percent from the second half of last year to 174, while the value rose 24 percent to 27.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Private Chinese firms were very active in pursuing foreign M&As to expand to take advantage of high-tech expertise. They contributed to 105 deals with a combined value of 12.3 billion U.S. dollars.
