Controversial Topic
On August 8, 2016, it was announced that German robot
maker Kuka is becoming Chinese. Chinese consumer goods
manufacturer Midea was able to acquire 94. 55 percent
of Kuka shares with a voluntary takeover bid made to its
shareholders (Midea, 8. 8. 2016).
And Kuka is not the only case:
In the past fifteen years, an increasing number of Chi-
nese investors have been buying up German companies
(Jungbluth 2013: 13; Table 1). This trend has been amplified
in the three years since the newChinese government under
the leadership of Xi Jinping took office (EY2016: 7). The
acquisitions focus is on small and medium-sized German
companies that own key technologies. Alarge portion of
the acquisitions are taking place in the machine tool, auto-
motive, and environmental technology. Since 2015, Chinese
investors’ attention has also turned to the German pharma-
ceutical and healthcare industries (Table 1). The media and
the public are following these activities with mixed feel –
ings. On the one hand, there has been an increase in reports
of positive experiences with Chinese investors in Germany,
especially when they keep or even create newj obs after the
acquisitions are complete (cf. Wirtschaftswoche, 6. 3. 2016:
18; Tageszeitung, 25. 4. 2013: 8). On the other hand, there is
a concern that j obs and technology eventually be transferred
to China. There is also suspicion for the Chinese govern-
ment to buy into German companies and thus gain (greater)
influence on economic activity in Germany.
Headlines fueling such fears are not uncommon: “Shopping spree: how
China is gobbling up small and medium-sized German
enterprises” ( “Auf Einkaufstour: Wie China den deutschen
Mittelstand frisst, ” Handelsblatt, 4. 1. 2016) , “The China
Invasion” ( “Die China-Invasion, ” Bild, 23. 6. 2011) or sim-
ply “The Chinese are coming” ( “Die Chinesen kommen”,
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 22. 5. 2008; Handelsblatt,
21. 12. 2015) are just a few examples.
EU Forecast
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