AFTER snapping up assets at a record pace so far this year, Chinese buyers are expected to hold back in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election in November, nervous that campaign rhetoric might invite closer regulatory scrutiny of deals.

    Uncertainty about the ultimate winner could also give buyers pause, said lawyers and bankers, as the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, has regularly accused China of stealing U.S. jobs and manipulating its currency for unfair trade advantage.

    “The identity, let alone the foreign policy of the incoming presidential candidate in the United States, isn’t exactly clear, and it is fair to say there is considerable uncertainty about how that will play out in the China market,” said Andrew McGinty, a partner at law firm Hogan Lovells International.

    Chinese foreign acquisitions this year have reached US$104 billion, close to the total announced last year, but there have also been a record nearly US$27 billion in failed attempts, mostly in the United States, and mostly due to regulatory pushback. Figures for deals announced in March through May are already down from a peak in February.

    The latest Chinese outbound deal to run into regulatory trouble is Anbang Insurance Group’s proposed US$1.57 billion bid for U.S. peer Fidelity & Guaranty Life.

    The New York regulator has asked Anbang to withdraw its application after it failed to provide information requested for processing the deal.

    Any deal launched for a U.S. target now is unlikely to secure all the required regulatory clearances before the November election, and most buyers will think twice before launching sensitive deals during the most intense period of campaigning, bankers say. (SD-Agencies)