Over the last 20 years, China’s industrial sector has been booming, to the extent that many industrial companies currently derive a big part of their global sales and an even bigger part of global profits from the Chinese market. The future will be characterized on one hand, by steady but slower growth, increasing cost and margin pressure, and on the other hand a general shift to “quality”, and by consolidation. M&A activity will increase considerably, in particular in automotive components and services, machinery and components. The main drivers will be consistent quality, efficiency and scale, access to specific clients (automotive) or to the mid-market. In addition, many Chinese entrepreneurs, facing both investment pressure and the lack of a successor, will be more open to sell.
In the 25 years of our existence we have concluded over 100 acquisition and joint venture projects in the industrial space in China. As in this sector most targets are medium sized private companies, we have developed a strong capacity in understanding the motivations and drivers of these entrepreneurs, and how to guide the acquisition process to a timely and successful conclusion.