June 2020 – The current global COVID-19 crises led countless businesses worldwide to scale down production or reduce their offered services. Many ties and interests were forced to moderate their ambitions in the international arena, affecting various industries worldwide. The pandemic is thus surely also impacting Chinese foreign investments, bringing in additional risks and uncertainties. Nevertheless, especially in the current situation, we at CPC are convinced that it is crucial to strengthen existing cooperation and nurture investments that have already been made. We see that the crisis brought by COVID-19 can serve as a trigger for analyzing and improving enterprises’ organizational structure and operations as well as for thinking about transformation in order to face uncertainty, changing markets and environments.
Both European companies and their Chinese investors must address the underlying challenges and look at bringing collaboration to the next level as a crucial success factor for thriving on the way out of the pandemic crisis. In this context, Xizhen Wang, Partner for Post-Merger Integration at CPC, gave a speech at the webinar Under the Epidemic: Post-Merger Management of Chinese-funded foreign enterprises, which was hosted recently by China Going Global Think Tank (CGGT) in Beijing and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Germany (CHKD) in Berlin.
The webinar was dedicated to exchanging and learning about challenges and opportunities in the context of Sino-German economic cooperation after the corona virus pandemic. Mr. Wei Duan, General Manager of CHKD, made the opening speech related to Sino-German economic cooperation, especially on the challenges and opportunities after the corona virus pandemic. He was followed by Mr. Guanqi Hao, chief representative of the China Automotive Technology and Research Center in Germany, who spoke about opportunities and challenges for the automotive industry specifically during and after pandemic time.
Xizhen introduced CPCs Competence Center for Post-Merger Integration related activities. She assured Chinese investors that in the recent years strong efforts and progress have been made in this field, while hurdles and difficulties are also visible. Given the challenges and pressures under the epidemic, Xizhen suggested to use this window period for both investors and acquired companies in Germany to work together. It is necessary to review the company’s strategy, organization, collaboration and governance mechanisms, make joint efforts to overcome the hurdles and difficulties, and initiate necessary changes to be ready for meeting future challenges.
CPC provides advisory and support in establishing effective intercultural collaboration, in developing and realizing impactful strategic trajectories, and in implementing proven organization and governance mechanisms in Post-Merger setups. We see those as key success factors in the context of Post-Mergers & Acquisitions.
Chinese investors and German companies should take the chance now to boost their relationship, bring more vitality into their joint endeavors, build on common resilience and reap the benefits through communication, cooperation, diversification, and transformation.
Contact:
Xizhen Wang
Partner Post Merger Integration at CPC
xizhen.wang@cpc-ag.de