Outbound investment deals by Chinese firms slowing

Tech giants Tencent Holdings Ltd and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd were the most active Chinese companies in terms of overseas investment last year, according to a survey jointly released by the Hurun Report and Shanghai-based merger and acquisition advisory firm DealGlobe on Thursday.

Tencent and Alibaba made seven overseas investments in 2017, according to the 2018 China Enterprise Cross-border M&A Special Report. The transaction volume of Tencent's seven investments reached 38 billion yuan ($6 billion), with the largest used to acquire a minority stake in India's biggest e-commerce firm Flipkart.

Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and chief researcher at the Hurun Report, said Tencent and Alibaba's ambitious outbound investment reflected the entire process of learning, replicating, growth and innovation of Chinese privately-owned enterprises.