BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by Chinese firms are likely to rebound in the second half of this year if the novel coronavirus epidemic is put under control, predicted global auditing and consulting firm PwC.
The virus epidemic causes large uncertainties of M&A deals in a short term, making it hard to forecast the trend in the entire 2020, said Wai Kay Eik, China deals leader of PwC China.
However, the analyst predicted that M&A will shrink in 2020, on par with last year in general, adding that the downtrend in 2019 will continue into the first half of 2020.
PwC Thursday released a report on China M&A review in 2019 and outlook in 2020, according to which, the value of M&A by Chinese firms fell to 558.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.
The deal values and volumes dropped by 14 percent and 13 percent from 2018 respectively, said the report, noting that the decline in deal values was driven by steep falls in domestic and outbound sectors.
PE held up reasonably well and there was strong foreign inbound M&A, although this category is relatively small, said the report. (Edited by Bao Nuomin, baonuomin@xinhua.org)
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