An employee works at a Chint Group solar panel production plant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. LIANG ZHEN / FOR CHINA DAILY

Chairman hints at M&As for tech in the Belt and Road markets this year

Chint Group, China's leading industrial electrical equipment and new-energy company, will definitely be making new investments in 2017－particularly in economies along the Belt and Road Initiative－as part of its aggressive globalization strategy, its chairman told China Daily on Friday.

"Our globalization strategy is to go abroad for mergers and acquisitions, bring in advanced technologies and go abroad again to produce high-end manufacturing products," said Nan Cunhui, chairman of Chint Group.

"There are many good high-tech deals in Europe and their valuations are reasonable, so we can bring their technologies to the Chinese market and achieve win-win results," said Nan.

In 2016, Chint Group acquired a 25 percent stake in Spain's grapheme polymer battery company Grabat Energy SL.

Nan said the group's working relations with Grabat since then had been very smooth and they have made some technological breakthroughs.

The chairman said that in the current year Europe and the United Kingdom would continue to be Chint Group's main destinations for mergers and acquisitions, followed by the United States and Japan.

"Most developing countries and regions along the Belt and Road are still at the early stage of industrialization, and they have strong demand for our high-end products," said Nan. "We will definitely set up factories in these countries this year. "

The company has already established factories in countries along the Belt and Road including Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt.

In February Chint Group opened its first factory for low-voltage switchgear manufacturing in Cairo, in the company's first move abroad in 2017.

"We need to respect local culture when engaged in M&As or making direct investments," Nan added.

Alan Wang, a partner in international law firm Freshfields based in Beijing and Shanghai with extensive experience in M&As, said there were a number of key challenges facing Chinese investors abroad.

He said these included a lack of understanding of local laws, particularly related to labor, environment and taxes; inadequate infrastructure, particularly power supply, transport and logistics; a lack of political stability, bureaucracy and corruption.

To date, Chint Group has established factories, research and development centers and marketing branches in about 80 countries and regions in Europe, North America, Russia, South America, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

The group says it has constructed more than 30 photovoltaic power plants overseas and sold its products to over 130 countries and regions.