The sale of Portugal's BESI, Novo Banco’s investment banking arm – which has since rebranded as Haitong Bank – to Haitong Securities in September 2015 marked two trends: the meteoric rise of China’s outward direct investment (ODI), which is set to outpace foreign direct investment in the country, and the increasing sophistication of China’s offshore investment.
Haitong Securities not only completed an acquisition in the financial services sector, marking a move away from the typical extractives or real estate sectors, it also bought an asset in one of the countries hit hardest during the eurozone sovereign crisis of 2010.
