Overseas Chinese investment continues to grow, but the nature of the deals has been evolving. Once it was mainly state-owned enterprises picking up energy and resources assets. Today, we are seeing financial sponsors investing in Western brands. When Hony Capital bought the UK’s Pizza Express restaurant chain, JPMorgan was its sole financial advisor and lead left bookrunner on the accompanying high-yield bond issue.
“We’ve seen Chinese companies buying assets overseas at record highs this year and Asia is incredibly relevant to our clients around the world” says Hernan Cristerna, JPMorgan’s co-head of global mergers and acquisitions (M&A). “Understanding how a Chinese company thinks about returns and valuations, and how the decision-making process works, is invaluable as they become bigger players in the global M&A market.”
