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China's outbound mergers and acquisitions, or M&A, will maintain their ambitious growth this year, with deals for energy and resources continuing to dominate.

Companies may increase overseas mergers and acquisitions by 40 percent this year as Chinese buyers grow in confidence, said PricewaterhouseCoopers), the industry-focused advisory.

With the global financial crisis making assets abroad more attractive, the value of Chinese companies' M&A outbound deals in 2009 may be three times that of 2008, said a PricewaterhouseCoopers report.

The resources accounted for two-thirds of all China's deals overseas last year, Ed King, head of M&A in Asia Pacific for Morgan Stanley, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying. Iron ore, copper, coal, nature gas and oil are critical to fuel China's growth, he said.

"China wants to find resources to secure raw material supplies, and the government is approaching Chinese companies and large banks, such as ICBC, to be more active overseas," said Roger Groebli, executive director of LGT Capital Management in Singapore.

Outbound activity is growing strongly, with deal volumes up more than 50 percent in the second half of last year compared to the two previous half-year periods.

The largest deal was the $7.3-billion bid by Sinopec for Swiss Addax Petroleum in the first half of 2009.

Three other deals announced in the second half were Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd's $2.9-billion acquisition of Australian Felix Resources Ltd; PetroChina's $1.7-billion investment for a stake in Canadian Anthabasca's oil sands assets; and China Investment Corp's $1.58-billion for a 15-percent stake in United States-based power firm, AES Corporation.

"But the value of outbound deals is still only around a third of the value of domestic and inbound transactions, and it emphasizes again that the majority of outbound transactions is still in the energy and resources space. There is a lot of room for growth in outbound deals," said Wang Xiaogang, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers China.

Questions:

1. Will M&A activity by Chinese companies increase in coming months, and by how much?

2. Are deal volumes up or down?

3. What was the largest M&A deal last year?

Answers:

1. Companies might increase overseas mergers and acquisitions by 40 percent this year, according to the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

2. Outbound activity is growing strongly, with deal volumes up more than 50 percent in the second half of last year.

3. Last year’s largest deal was the $7.3-billion bid by Sinopec for Swiss Addax Petroleum in the first half of 2009.

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（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）

Todd Balazovic is a reporter for the Metro Section of China Daily. Born in Mineapolis Minnesota in the US, he graduated from Central Michigan University and has worked for China Daily for one year.