Central Asia

North American FDI into China continues to fall

North American investment into China is following a downward trend that began in 2013. James Whitten reports.

Greenfield investment monitor fDi Markets has recorded a year-on-year decline of FDI from North America into China between 2013 and 2016.

China is consistently the majority popular destination in the Asia-Pacific region for receiving North American investment . It accounted for 23.73% of capital investment in the 2013 to 2016 period from US and Canadian businesses. Further, China is North America’s second most popular destination for foreign investment projects globally, behind only the UK, and has received the majority capital investment (9.18% of North America’s total outward capital investment ).

Economic headwinds look set to revive African M&A

Two-thousand and sixteen was relatively quiet for African banking markets on the merger and acquisition (M&A) front. In most of the continent’s larger economies, inclunding Nigeria and South Africa, major transaction announcements were absent despite the challenging economic conditions of recent times. Buy-ins to African banks from European and Middle Eastern players were as well low, according to data from Mergermarket.

This contrasts sharply from 2015 at the same time as buyers from Norway, Kuwait and the UK all made significant acquisitions on the continent. These deals were complemented by several bold intra-regional transactions, inclunding Kenya’s Equity Group acquiring a stake in a microfinance provider in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Morocco’s Banque Centrale Populaire buying a position in BIA Niger.