ANALYSIS: China, Hong Kong M&A Already Ailing; Virus Won’t Help

The new lunar year is off to a traumatic start, with the deadly coronavirus outbreak putting travel, markets, and deals on hold. While 2019 was a remarkably bad year for M&A involving parties from China and Hong Kong—with the trade war, the Hong Kong protests, and ramped-up foreign investment restrictions targeting Chinese investors abroad—will 2020 be even worse? As January comes to a close, only 403 deals (172 of which are pending) involving at least one Chinese party have been announced in 2020 so far, with an aggregate value of $17 billion.

Chinese Deals: A Shrinking Sliver of Global M&A ...