CITIC Pacific agrees to buy main assets of CITIC Group in US$44.5 billion mega deal

Surpassing the biggest-ever Asia Pacific acquisition.

In a record-breaking development, China's CITIC Pacific agreed to purchase the main assets of CITIC Group, its state-owned parent, in a deal valued at US$44.5 billion.

According to the Asia Pacific M&A Preliminary Review for First Half of 2014 by Thomson Reuters, the deal surpassed the biggest-ever acquisition in Asia Pacific, which was PCCW’s US$35.5 billion acquisition of Cable & Wireless HKT in 2000.

The same report also noted in a separate story that the average M&A deal value involving Asia Pacific companies excluding Japan for disclosed deals grew to US$110.3 million compared to US$69.0 million in the first half 2013.

This story noted that this was because deal-making so far this year involving Asia Pacific companies witnessed at least six transactions worth US$5-billion and above, and mentioned CITIC Pacific’s US$44-billion mega deal.