China, India go shopping
TEXT OF STORY
SCOTT JAGOW: Chinese and Indian companies seem to be on a buying spree. They’ve been snatching up companies based in other countries. Today, the head of an Asian bank tells the Financial Times, this is just the tip of a very large iceberg. Miranda Kennedy reports.
MIRANDA KENNEDY: Last week, India’s Tata Steel made the largest ever foreign acquisition by an Indian company when it bought out the British Corus Group, which is four times its size.
It was one in a flurry of overseas buyouts by Indian companies in the last 12 months.
S Ramesh, with Kotak Investment Banking in Bombay, says Indian and Chinese companies have become ambitious and savvy so the trend is only going to increase.
S RAMESH:“There is a change in the center of gravity. There is a paradigm shift. But our judgment at this juncture is over time it will be more pronounced, you’ll see more companies doing this than what they are today.”
It helps that Chinese and Indian companies also have a healthy flow of cash and stock to offer. More than half the money Indian companies raised last year came from overseas investors.
In New Delhi, I’m Miranda Kennedy for Marketplace.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
