Chinese overseas M&A performance and the go global policy

Abstract

This paper investigates whether stock markets view Chinese M&As as increasing shareholder wealth. The subject is of interest given the influential role that the government plays in Chinese firms' overseas activities, and the fact that the government may have objectives other than maximization of shareholder wealth. We examine 145 OMAs by Chinese acquiring firms over the year 1994-2008. We find some evidence that markets positively responded to news of Chinese OMAs. However, we also find that markets responded less favorably after China implemented its Go Global policy encouraging overseas investment. We hypothesize two reasons for this: First, the expansion of OMAs under Go Global resulted in Chinese firms pursuing less attractive targets, on average. Second, Go Global re-directed investment towards industries having national strategic value but diminished profit value. Using a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition procedure, we find no evidence to support this latter hypothesis. Thus, to whatever extent strategic interests may motivate China's Go Global policy, it does not appear that their pursuit has come at the expense of shareholder wealth.