· Sinochem's 7 billion euros huge acquisition of 26.2% stake in Italian tire manufacturing companies

Italy's tire manufacturing company Pirelli Group's controlling party - Italy Carmel Group recently announced that it has signed an agreement with China National Chemical Corporation (China Chemical) to sell Pirelli's 26.2% stake to the latter at a total price of about 7 billion euros. It is reported that the acquisition will be operated by a newly established holding subsidiary of Sinochem, which will subsequently initiate a tender offer for the remaining shares, and acquire a majority stake in Pirelli Group for Sinopec, making it a high-end tire manufacturer. The largest shareholder.
According to a research report by the famous British Baker McKenzie law firm, Chinese companies are increasingly investing in European R&D centers, food processing equipment, machinery manufacturing and other fields. According to a report released in February this year by Rongding Consulting, a market research company focused on China affairs, China's investment in Europe is becoming more diversified, and real estate, food and finance industries are becoming more and more popular.
Achieving leapfrog growth Rongding Consulting's data for February this year showed that China's direct investment in Europe last year was almost twice that of 2013, and there were 153 transactions involving Chinese companies across Europe. According to statistics, the countries that attracted the most investment in China in 2014 were still in the UK, followed by Italy, followed by the Netherlands, Portugal and Germany. At the beginning of this year, Chinese investors spent $4.3 billion and $1.5 billion respectively to acquire the Club of the Mediterranean and the Louvre Hotel Group. On February 10th, China Wanda Group announced that it has acquired Swiss Media Group, a sports media group, for 1.050 billion euros.
Noblez, a professor at the University of Westminster Business School in London, UK, told this reporter that before 2004, China’s direct investment in Europe was very small. In 2009, this kind of investment was rapidly developed.
Last year, Chinese investors invested a total of $2.3 billion in the UK real estate market, including the acquisition of several office buildings in London. The biggest one is CIC's acquisition of an office property in the west of London, Chiswick Park.
Italy is the second largest beneficiary of China's investment in Europe in 2014. In May last year, Shanghai Electric Group and Italy Strategic Fund Corporation signed an agreement to acquire 40% of Ansaldo Energy from its hands at a price of 400 million euros. In July last year, China State Grid Corporation acquired a 35% stake in the Italian deposit and loan energy network company for about 2.1 billion euros, indirectly holding the leaders in the field of energy transmission in Europe, the Italian transmission grid and the Italian natural gas network. Each 10% of the company's shares. In October last year, Bright Food Group bought a 90% stake in the Salov Olive Oil Group, which is the top spot in the US-British olive oil market, from the Fontana family for 100 million euros.
In the Netherlands, the vast majority of Chinese funds are invested in food and agriculture. Last year, COFCO acquired a 51% stake in Rotterdam-based multinational grain merchant Nidra, bringing Chinese companies' investment in the Netherlands to a record level.
Jin Xu, Minister Counselor of the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom, said in an interview with this reporter that at present, China has a broad investment in Europe and has achieved major breakthroughs and major leap in terms of investment amount and field.
The trend towards diversification is only for the UK. China's investment in the UK covers infrastructure, commercial real estate, brand networks, R&D centers, high-end manufacturing and other fields. The industrial chain continues to expand and the value center continues to move up. Among the five projects with a large investment amount in the infrastructure and old city transformation projects issued by the UK Trade and Investment Agency, there are four projects invested and constructed by Chinese enterprises. In an interview, our reporter learned that in 2014, Greenland Group spent 600 million pounds to purchase London beer factory plots to develop commercial real estate projects, investing 600 million pounds to develop London landmark buildings - Canary Wharf high-end residential projects; China Life Insurance Spend £795 million to buy a 30-story building in Canary Wharf; Construction Bank (London) buys office buildings in the heart of the City of London. Large projects such as the ABP, Wanda Group, and Greenland Group have invested in the UK. Chinese companies investing in British real estate covering industries, offices, hotels, residential and other fields, the investment situation is more diversified.
Professor Zhang Haijun, an expert on Asian business strategy management at Rouen Business School in France, told this reporter that all aspects of the data show that China's investment in Europe is growing substantially, and the development trend of Chinese companies investing in Europe can be derived from two new investments. A glimpse of the case.
First, Haitong Securities spent 379 million euros to acquire the Portuguese Holy Spirit Investment Bank, which is based in Lisbon, Portugal. The latter's business covers 14 countries on four continents and has layouts in Brazil, Mexico, India, Poland and Africa. The accelerated pace of overseas expansion of Chinese brokers will create a more free overseas investment platform for Chinese private capital.
Second, Alibaba is listed in the United States and has signed investment intentions with major EU economies such as Italy, Germany and France. It is foreseeable that some e-commerce companies in China will land in Europe and directly provide services to the European middle class and SMEs.
Stronger cooperation momentum Luisa Santos, head of European European Affairs Department of the famous European employers' organization, told this reporter that Europe is very welcome to invest from China. The markets of European countries are open to investors from China and welcome China to participate. Come to the European economy. Santos said that it supports China and the EU to establish bilateral investment agreements as soon as possible to further optimize the investment environment.
In an interview, our reporter learned that the British people are welcoming China's investment and believe that China's investment has solved the "bottleneck" problem of the poor capital chain of many local enterprises, and injected fresh blood and powerfulness into the development of the British economy. Motivation, but also created employment for the local, helping to solve the problem of many people's jobs.
According to the Italian "Late Post", the current Pirelli Group Chairman and CEO Provira has considered selling the shares to Yokohama Group of Japan and Hankook Group of Korea, but after examining the two companies, they finally chose Sinochem is a partner. Provela said that for Pirelli, cooperation with China Chemicals means huge development opportunities, and its business policy and strategic vision will ensure the future development and stability of Pirelli.
Italian Prime Minister Renzi has personally witnessed the signing ceremony of the two acquisitions of Shanghai Electric and State Grid. Full of confidence in the prospects for cooperation between domestic companies and Chinese companies is the fundamental driving force behind the Italian government's support for Chinese companies to invest. Italian Finance Minister Padoan also said that the long-term investment of Chinese companies based on the real economy is in line with the needs of the Italian government at this stage. As the former chairman of the European Commission and former Italian Prime Minister Prodi told this reporter, the timing of further development in the investment field has matured among all the current Sino-Italian economic cooperation categories.

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