In the Year of the Tiger, the capital markets roared. While Western banks nursed their still-bruised egos, the biggest of China’s banks raised billions on the markets and lent billions more. The nation’s overseas shopping spree continued, with investments abroad securing supplies of oil, gas, metals and other resources. And throughout the year, Chinese companies picked up overseas technology and brands, none more glittering than Geely’s purchase of Volvo from Ford in March.
This month, as the tiger returns to its lair and the rabbit hops to centre stage, China Business Law Journal presents its deals of the year. Our choice is based on our observation of law firms and the legal market in the past 12 months. All the deals we have selected are drawn from transactions that law firms themselves have nominated, in response to a survey. We chose the winners not merely on the basis of size, or the hype they attracted, but according to novelty, interest, and perceived significance in either commercial or legal terms. No payment was requested or received from any law firm, or any other party, in return for our selection of any deal.
Our choice is, clearly, subjective. It does not hold itself out as comprehensive. But we suspect it may become definitive – a written record of the highlights of China law and business over the year. In this issue, we feature our choices in outbound M&A, infrastructure & project finance, banking & finance, offshore IPOs, intellectual property and restructuring & insolvency. Next issue we will cover the remaining major categories: domestic M&A, inbound M&A, domestic IPOs, dispute resolution, private equity & venture capital, foreign direct investment and the environment.
What is in store for the coming 12 months? Andy Xie, a former chief Asia Pacific economist for Morgan Stanley who is now an independent economist based in Shanghai, warned recently that “China has entered an era of inflation”. In the Business Law Digest over the past months, we have reported a number of legal measures taken by the government to rein in runaway property prices. This month the Business Law Digest reports on new regulations aimed at stabilizing consumer price levels and imposing penalties for illegal pricing. We don’t yet know whether such measures will have the desired cooling effect, or whether, as Xie suggests, other steps such as increasing interest rates, and cutting personal income tax rates to mitigate the possibility of social unrest, will also have to be taken.
The rabbit is, according to folklore, trusted, conscientious, good at business and financially lucky. It seems that all of its qualities will be needed if the coming year’s deals are to display the same confidence and ambition as those in the year that has just ended.
