Not only have China, Russia and the Middle East been the focuses for investment and low cost countries sourcing, their own investment successes have had a terrific impact on increasing their “sovereign wealth funds”. Recently, it has been reported in the press that the EU Commission are concerned that state-controlled foreign investment funds are targeting assets within the EU to gain political and strategic influence. The EU speculates that the figure is around $2.5 trillion.

CIPS has been tracking these issues. Johan Leven, head of mergers and acquisitions in Asia for Goldman Sachs commented that China has companies with huge capitalisations and negligible global presence. “They see foreign acquisitions as strategically important – helping them to access skills that could drive reform across their whole organisations”.1 This Knowledge Now document examines recent developments and their impact for purchasing and supply management professionals.