China sees increase of M&A cases against backdrop of global crisis

Official figures show a 43% increase of merger and acquisition applications in China this year. The Commerce Ministry discussed its work in 2011 at a briefing on Tuesday, where questions also arose about the year’s biggest anti-monopoly case.

Never has any antimonopoly investigation case in China drawn so much attention as the one against China Telecom and China Unicom. In early November, the two biggest broadband internet providers in China were accused of price manipulation of internet access. With the investigation ongoing, the head of the anti-trust division of the Ministry of Commerce was reluctant to comment.

Shang Ming, director general of Anti-Monopoly Bureau, MOFCOM, said, "You should all know that the antitrust regulation in China is handled by three separate agencies. I can only answer the questions within the scope of the Ministry of Commerce. "

The Ministry of Commerce is mainly overseeing mergers and acquisitions. But Shang said, in terms of the cases which were related to state-owned enterprises, all antitrust regulators had always implemented the law fairly.

Shang Ming said, "For those companies in industries closely related to the national economic lifelines, we will apply the State Council development plan, industry regulations, and the antitrust law item 7 in particular, to ensure their sound development.

Between January and mid-December this year, the Ministry finished vetting 160 M&A cases from both domestic and foreign companies, up 40% from a year earlier. 64% of them were in manufacturing. Shang explained why the number had increased.

Shang Ming said, "Because of the global financial crisis, the sluggish global economy had slowed down business expansion and pushed companies towards increasing sales through merger and acquisition deals. Besides, more and more companies in China have grown up to reach the standard to file M&A applications with us. All these combined have contributed to the increase. "

Shang predicted the number of applications would continue growing in the next year, given the current economic situation. He said the ministry would try to speed up the handling process.

China's first antimonopoly law was put in act more than 3 years ago to create a more transparent and prosperous market environment in China and beyond.