SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 15, 2025 - Shanghai is sharpening its push to become a leading center for merger-and-acquisition activity, as the 2025 Mergers and Acquisitions Finance Conference spotlighted stronger regional deal momentum and unveiled a new market index intended to track China's evolving M&A environment.
Policy momentum behind listed-company restructuring
The conference took place as Shanghai marks one year since releasing a three-year action plan aimed at supporting M&A among listed firms. In practical terms, the message to corporate leaders and capital providers is clear: policy alignment and financial-market infrastructure are being positioned to support more transactions that improve efficiency, accelerate industrial upgrading, and strengthen competitiveness in key sectors.
Yangtze River Delta's outsized share of China's deals
Data released alongside the debut of the China M&A Composite Index (2025) underscored the concentration of deal activity in the Yangtze River Delta. From October 2024 to September 2025, Shanghai and other areas in the delta contributed approximately 45% of M&A deals across China. By value, those transactions accounted for about 60% of the comparable national aggregate-reinforcing the delta, including Shanghai as well as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces, as a core growth driver for China's M&A market.
For dealmakers, that concentration typically brings both opportunity and pressure: deeper liquidity and advisory capacity on the one hand, and faster competitive repositioning on the other as peers consolidate and re-balance portfolios.
Alliance model targets scale in M&A facilitation
A central outcome from the event was the launch of an M&A alliance involving Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank), China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd., and Guotai Haitong Securities. The alliance announced an action plan, stating it aims to facilitate M&A deals of over 1.2 trillion yuan nationwide and 400-plus billion yuan in Shanghai from 2025 to 2027, while expanding its client base to exceed 1,200.
For corporate finance teams, this kind of multi-party coordination can matter as much as headline targets, particularly if it improves execution speed and certainty across a typical deal lifecycle, such as:
- sourcing and screening potential targets
- designing transaction and financing structures
- aligning risk coverage and post-deal requirements
- supporting cross-border or multi-venue execution where applicable
Financing capacity remains a differentiator
SPD Bank, also a co-host of the conference, described itself as a pacesetter in M&A financing in China. Year to date, its M&A lending has exceeded 100 billion yuan, and outstanding M&A loans stand at 240-plus billion yuan. In a market where timing, structure, and integration costs can reshape returns, access to specialized M&A financing is often a decisive lever-especially for listed firms pursuing strategic acquisitions, divestitures, or restructuring transactions under tight windows.
China M&A Composite Index aims to track market "health"
The China M&A Composite Index introduced during the conference is positioned as a new barometer for China's M&A market. It draws on pooled data from capital markets and equity exchanges and is intended to reflect sector developments across activity, size, efficiency, environment, and effectiveness. For investors, acquirers, and advisors, such a framework can support benchmarking and earlier detection of shifts in deal conditions-whether driven by financing availability, regulatory direction, or changes in transaction quality.
The conference was organized by Xinhua News Agency Shanghai Bureau and China Economic Information Service Shanghai Headquarters, and was framed as part of efforts to further enliven the M&A financing market in support of Shanghai's international financial center ambitions.
For more on SPD Bank's investment banking and M&A financing services, visit https://eng.spdb.com.cn/.