In a complex and changing market, companies are increasingly focusing on the core capability of "resilience" to find new growth opportunities in challenges.
As Jeremy Rifkin emphasized in his book "The Age of Resilience", in a world full of uncertainty, if companies want to continue to grow, they must break through the shackles of traditional thinking and bravely explore the "new world".
In China's science and technology industry, the "new world" is no longer just a vision, but a reality that is constantly being verified. In recent years, there have been endless cases of companies using innovation as an engine to open up new growth tracks through strategic transformation.
Take Haier Bio (688139.SH) as an example. This absolute leader in the field of low-temperature storage in China has made "new industry growth" the core keyword of the industry by accelerating its transformation. According to the latest 2024 interim report, its new industry revenue accounted for as high as 42.63%, a year-on-year increase of 22.69%.
This remarkable achievement shows that Haier Bio is firmly promoting the strategy of "life science and medical innovation digital scene ecological brand". By vertically deepening the traditional low-temperature storage business and horizontally expanding the non-storage business, it has successfully built the second growth curve - the sustained growth of new industries, which has become an important driving force for the development of the company.
The success of Haier Bio has made the capital market full of expectations and thinking about "new industries". Especially in the context of the increasingly active M&A market, many Chinese companies have focused on the development of new industries through strategic mergers and acquisitions, and have achieved dazzling results.
But it is worth pondering whether listed companies can really focus on new industries through mergers and acquisitions to achieve exponential growth in value? The answer to this question may determine the future pattern and competitiveness of Chinese companies on the global stage.
Certainty in uncertainty: the logic of corporate mergers and acquisitions
When you are poor, you must change, and when you change, you will be able to get through, and when you get through, you will last.
For many years, China's capital market has been moving forward in uncertainty, deeply affected by global policy fluctuations and cyclical factors in various industries. From the initial pursuit of IPO exit paths to the gradual transformation to corporate mergers and acquisitions, the capital market has experienced an evolution from nothing to something, from insisting on one's own views to going with the flow.
In recent years, with the increasing activity of the M&A market, there have been constant controversies about "M&A and restructuring". Some people believe that M&A and restructuring, as an innovative path under the new economic system, is an effective means for enterprises to achieve rapid expansion, but there are also certain risks and uncertainties.
Another part of the voice firmly believes that in the stock economy and highly competitive capital ecology, M&A is undoubtedly an inevitable choice for enterprises to achieve rapid growth.
In this context, we can't help but ask: How to correctly view the status of M&A in the capital market? How to understand the deep connection between new industries and M&A?
Wei Zhe, founding partner and chairman of Jiayu Fund and former president of Alibaba B2B, once pointed out in the 2019 Black Horse Industry Class that the Chinese economy is bidding farewell to the era of incremental economy with GDP soaring, and entering a large-scale economy dominated by stock economy.
From a global perspective, whether it is the United States, Europe or Japan, economies have long entered a similar stock economy pattern.
This trend has become increasingly evident in the slowdown in economic growth in recent years.
At present, both in China and the world, the economic growth rate has slowed down significantly or even stagnated. At the same time, the problem of wealth disparity is gradually intensifying, and the resource constraints faced by enterprises are becoming more severe. In this context, improving resource utilization efficiency and increasing product added value have become the key ways for enterprises to maintain their competitiveness.
In such an economic environment, mergers and acquisitions have brought opportunities for rebirth to enterprises and emerging companies on the verge of difficulties, and also provided excellent investment opportunities for institutions with a large amount of capital.
Emerging industries can not only obtain financial support by introducing strategic investors through the transfer of controlling rights, but also accelerate industrial upgrading and market expansion with the help of the resources and professional experience of the capital party.
This "win-win" model is particularly suitable for enterprises in the period of industrial transformation. With the empowerment of external resources, these enterprises can calmly respond to market challenges, find breakthroughs for sustainable growth, and gradually occupy a place in the fierce competition.
A new path under the new M&A policy
In recent years, "M&A" has gradually become one of the hottest topics in China's capital market. In the context of the cold IPO environment, the M&A boom has injected new growth momentum into the capital market and provided an important path for enterprises to find breakthroughs.
As of December 2024, my country's State Council and the China Securities Regulatory Commission have successively issued three national M&A guidance documents - "New National Nine Articles", "Science and Technology Eight Articles" and "M&A Six Articles".
At the same time, local governments have also actively responded to policy guidance. The Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee Financial Office issued the "Shenzhen Merger and Reorganization Fourteen Articles", and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government Office issued the "Shanghai Merger and Reorganization 12 Articles". The concentrated introduction of these policies has brought solid policy support and clear operational directions to the M&A market.
The policy dividend has directly promoted the rapid development of the M&A and reorganization market. According to statistics, since the implementation of the "National Nine Articles", the scale of China's M&A and reorganization market has continued to rise.
In the first half of 2024, China's M&A market disclosed a total of 3,674 M&A events, with a total transaction size of 709.9 billion yuan, highlighting the market's strong demand for high-quality M&A projects. In 2024, the total number of domestic and cross-border M&A transactions in China reached 8,378, with a cumulative transaction amount of 2,016.3 billion yuan, an increase of 1.6% year-on-year.
According to quarterly data, the transaction amounts of mergers and acquisitions in 2024 will be 360.2 billion yuan, 423.9 billion yuan, 694.2 billion yuan and 538 billion yuan respectively.
These data fully demonstrate that with the gradual implementation of policies and the release of their effects, the activity of the M&A market has increased significantly, and the scale of transactions has continued to rise, becoming one of the important pillars of economic development.
Behind this series of impressive figures, the overall recovery and upgrading transformation of China's M&A and restructuring market is reflected. After experiencing the previous fluctuations, the market has gradually moved towards a stage of high-quality development, and the scale and number of transactions have kept pace, showing the positive role of policies in promoting the industry.
The implementation of the new M&A policy is not only an important part of the deepening reform of the capital market, but also a strategic choice for my country's macro-economy after entering the era of stock economy. Through policy guidance, supporting listed companies to carry out M&A and restructuring can optimize resource allocation, improve market efficiency, and inject innovative vitality into enterprises.
Faced with this opportunity, enterprises can only seize the policy dividend period and accurately grasp the M&A opportunities to achieve overtaking in the fierce market competition and truly seize the opportunity for economic growth.
How can M&A achieve value doubling?
Mergers and acquisitions are essentially the reintegration of resources, which inject growth momentum into enterprises through the organic combination of capital, technology and market. Successful merger and acquisition cases often have the following characteristics:
(1) Accurate strategic selection: Focus on new areas that are in line with future industry trends to ensure that the acquisition target can form synergy with the company's existing resources.
(2) Efficient integration capabilities: The ability to integrate resources after the merger and acquisition directly determines whether the company can achieve the expected value doubling.
(3) Policy and capital support: Policy dividends and support from the capital market have created a good external environment for mergers and acquisitions.
Leaders who seize opportunities
In the global merger and acquisition wave, a number of excellent companies focusing on mergers and acquisitions have emerged. American Goheal M&A Group (hereinafter referred to as Goheal) is a global merger and acquisition investment holding company with business covering the acquisition of listed company control rights and capital operations.
Goheal will help companies maximize the value of the entire life cycle of "mergers and acquisitions-restructuring-selling" through precise merger and acquisition strategies and efficient resource integration methods.
This not only brings new growth opportunities to the target companies, but also provides high-quality investment returns for the investors.
Listed companies do have the potential to double their value by focusing on new industries through mergers and acquisitions, but the premise is that companies can formulate scientific M&A strategies and effectively integrate resources after the mergers and acquisitions. Driven by policy dividends and capital markets, companies with strategic vision and integration capabilities will surely stand out in the new economic cycle.
In the era of stock economy, seizing the opportunity of mergers and acquisitions is not only the choice of companies, but also the call of the times.
