Chinese investment into Europe fell to its lowest point in almost a decade in 2022. The 22% decline in investments last year reflects Europe’s recent moves to police the sale of assets to China. This is after several years of courting investments from Beijing.
Researchers have found, that at least 10 out of 16 investment deals pursued in 2022 by Chinese entities could not be completed due to objections raised by authorities in the UK, Germany, Italy and Denmark.
Several of the aborted deals were blocked due to the technology targeted by the Chinese investors. In other cases, deals were annulled after the imposition of regulatory terms. This is according to a study by Rhodium Group – a research company based in Berlin.
“Increased scrutiny of inbound investment will likely continue in coming years,” said the report by Rhodium Group.
The authors of the report notes that their study of 16 investment deals is inconclusive, since government reviews of transactions are often not made public.
The barriers to Chinese acquisitions in Europe have resulted in greenfield investments now dominating China’s profile in Europe. This area was accounting for 4.5 billion euro or 57% of the total in 2022.
Source: ft.com
