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Rush of Chinese Investment in Europe’s High Tech Firms is Raising Eyebrows
After
a customer canceled a large order at the last minute, shares in
Aixtron, a German high-tech company, sank fast. Months later, with the
stock still reeling, a Chinese investor agreed to buy the company. If only it were as simple as smart deal making.
Financial
filings and public statements indicate a web of relationships among the
customer, the buyer and the Chinese state. The links highlight the
blurred lines between increasingly acquisitive Chinese companies and
Beijing’s long term industrial policy.
Chinese
leaders have made clear their intention of using state funds to acquire
technological capabilities overseas and bring them home, and a series
of purchases in recent years have highlighted that strategy.
That
has led to questions about how to treat bids that cross between private
investment and state orchestrated takeovers. It has also fed into
broader suspicions about the fate of the takeover targets, and whether
national champions will ultimately be absorbed into the supply chain in
China.
