Chinese acquisitions along the Belt & Road countries reached a record high in 2017 amounting to US$33.3 billion year-to-date on August 17, bucking the decline in the overall outbound M&A volume so far this year.

The amount has already exceeded the annual volume of US$30.7 billion in 2016 and accounted for 39% market share of the total China outbound activity this year.

According to Thomson Reuters’ data, China’s overall outbound M&A transactions have dropped 41% to US$84.8 billion so far in 2017 due to regulatory hurdles such as stricter outbound capital controls and increased scrutiny from target markets.

The top target sector year-to-date is industrials as it accounted for 58.5% of the total deal volume along the Belt & Road countries, followed by materials, which accounted for 21.9%, energy and power 10.7%, financials 3.6% and retail 3%.

By country, the leading target nation is Singapore, which accounted for 58%, followed by Mongolia 16.5%, United Arab Emirates 8%, Russia 4.2% and South Korea 3.6%.

Globally, Thomson Reuters says cross-border M&A rose 9.4 % to US$802 billion year-to-date in 2017, the highest year-to-date period since 2015. The US was the largest acquiror during the period with outbound activity valued at US$169.3 billion for a 21% market share, followed by China with 11%, which represented a drop from 20% in 2016.