Chinese companies in the UK maintain impressive growth

Big deals in slow year for M&A

Chinese foreign direct investment into Europe has been comparatively modest since China imposed regulations on capital outflows, which kicked into action around the time of a huge wave of European mergers and acquisitions in 2016 and 2017.

Excluding real estate, 44 deals involving Chinese investors took place in the UK last year, when the total value of deals was 3.6 billion pounds. This compares to 16.6 billion-pounds worth of deals in 2017.

Major deals in 2019 included China-based steel maker Jiangsu Shagang Group acquiring a 24 percent stake in UK data center company Global Switch in a 1.8 billion-pound deal, and the acquisition of London-based payment company WorldFirst by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial in a deal valued at 550 million pounds.

Hillhouse Capital, an investment company founded by Chinese businessman Zhang Lei, purchased Scottish whisky company Loch Lomond Group for 315 million pounds, while the Chinese Zhejiang Silk Road Fund contributed to a 195 million-pound funding round for British robotic surgery company CMR Surgical.

China's Bright Scholar acquired CATS Colleges, part of the Cambridge Education Group, in a deal valued at 150 million pounds, the largest in a flurry of deals in the British education sector last year.

And a mammoth deal in the manufacturing sector is yet to be finalized. Late last year, Chinese steel company Jingye Group announced it would be investing 1.2 billion pounds in British Steel over the next 10 years.