China's state-owned enterprises in Europe buying spree concern

China’s richest man says his country’s state-owned enterprises are short-termist and lack international management standards. Nevertheless, SoEs dominated a surge of Chinese investment into Europe last year, raising a series of questions over the suitability of China Inc as an owner of European corporate assets.

Self-made billionaire Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group and one of China’s biggest outward investors, criticised SoEs for being slow and lacking long-term overseas expansion strategies.

“The bosses of state-owned enterprises are unable to set long-term goals because their position will be replaced in two or three years,” Mr Wang told an audience at Oxford university last week. “Moreover, state-owned enterprises do not have international standards for their management systems, and have long cycles for their approval process,” he added.

He cited an example. When bidding for a real estate project in London, Mr Wang said, he was given one week to complete or the asset would go up for auction, resulting in a higher price.

“I made the quick decision to go for it, signed the agreement and paid the cash in three days,” he said. “In a similar situation, it would have been very difficult for a state-owned enterprise to make that swift decision.”