Apr. 21 – Mergers and acquisitions in Asia have long been the subject of speculation; this is especially true in China, with stories of multibillion dollar deals and government interference; the most recent occasion being the failed Coke-Haiyuan deal.

The curious perception about M&A in China is that the market has been, or is expected to be, buoyant and that recent government involvement on anti-monopoly grounds has “killed” the Chinese M&A industry (PE firms and the like). The truth, however, is that M&A in both China and India remain strong. Few deals are expected to be as controversial as the failed Coke acquisition, which generated a lot of negativity about the ability to succeed in China, yet the real issue was the failure of Coke’s acquisition strategy. So why has the media hype over M&A in China been so off-kilter? Continue reading →

Apr. 21 – The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have just released their International Yearbook of Manufacturing Statistics and have found that China and India rank first and fourth respectively in global manufacturing value added (MVA) output. Emerging markets have doubled their output in the past 18 years, with them producing 30 percent of global manufacturing value, demonstrating the increasing shift of production and the outsourcing of services to developing countries. The industrialized world gained a 30 percent increase.

A staggering 75 percent of global MVA was accounted for in Asian developing markets, with China contributing 42 percent of this. India’s growth rate of MVA output rose from 6.9 percent to 12.3 percent in two years from 2005 to 2007, with MVA accounting for about 15 percent of the country’s GDP. India’s fourth placed ranking is after China, the USA and Italy.

Apr. 20 – Steel output and a revival in the auto, housing and rural infrastructure sectors for Q1 in India point to a turning point for India’s economy, while other steel producing countries have seen a continuing downturn. India’s steel industry production and consumption grew at 1.2 percent and 3.8 percent respectively over the same period last year, according to The Economic Times.

The increase was spurred also by Chinese demands, with a 17 percent surge in iron ore exports to China in March, up to 12.6 million tons from 10.8 million tons in March 2008, a major indicator that China’s massive economic stimulus plan is starting to have an effect on development projects within China and boost its economic performance and GDP in the wake of the global financial crisis. Continue reading →