U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will lead the U.S. delegation at the fourth round of the Sino-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue, to be held on June 17 and 18 in Annapolis, Md. Since there will be a delegation of Chinese companies on hand to look for U.S.
investment opportunities, it's not a bad idea to have a former i-banker hosting things.
So far, U.S. direct investment in China has vastly outstripped the flows in the other direction. In a Beijing briefing, He Ning, director general for U.S. and Oceania affairs at China's Ministry
of Commerce, said investments from China have been slowed by Washington's
"cautious" attitude on mergers and acquisitions by Chinese firms.
Cases in point are Cnooc Ltd.'s failed bid for U.S. energy firm Unocal Corp. in 2005,
and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.'s failed attempt to participate in a buyout of 3Com Corp., which fizzled out in March. Both were stalled by political opposition in the U.S.
He Ning didn't say which companies will come along. At the moment China's Qindao Haier Co. Ltd. (which lost out in an earlier bid for Maytag Corp.) is
in the running for General Electric Co.'s $7.2 billion appliance business, and Dongfeng Motor Corp.
may bid for General Motors Corp.'s Hummer division. But they probably don't need any introductions.
Corporate Dealmaker gave readers an overview of
outbound Chinese acquisitions in an article last year.
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Baz HiralalChinese companies to seek deals in U.S.
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