‘International Symposium on the Implications of the Financial Crisis and Government Intervention for Cross-Border Investment and M&A’ was held at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School on Friday 16 October 2009.
This is the second event of this kind, co-ordinated by The International Institute for the Study of Cross-Border Investment and M&A (XBMA), a co-operative venture among leading business schools in Europe, China and the US. The first and inaugural symposium of the Institute was held in Beijing in June 2008.
Cambridge’s Judge Business School, Guanghua School of Management of Peking University and NYU’s Stern School of Business are the sponsoring academic institutions behind this symposium
Leading business figures from China and the West, senior government officials, legal and banking experts and academics attended the event. Three keynote speakers were Jiang Jianqing, Chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC); Lord Mervyn Davis, Minister of Trade & Investment, UK; and Professor Weiying Zhang, Dean of the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University. Other influential speakers at the event include Baron David de Rothschild, Chairman of N M Rothschild & Sons Limited; Martin Lipton, Founding Partner of Wachtell Lipton, Rosen & Katz; James S. Turley, Global Chairman and CEO, Ernst & Young; James Richard Li , Chairman of PCCW Limited and Pacific Century Group; Peter Clarke, CEO of Man Group; Takumi Shibata, Deputy President and COO, Nomura Holdings Inc.
Pariticipants discussed the underlying forces, constraints and developments that are shaping or hindering important cross-border transactions and investments. In light of the current financial crisis they also focused on the related upsurge in state activity in the economic sector and economic nationalism.
Zhang Weiying, Dean of Peking University Guanghua School of Management and one of the founders of the XBMA Institute, commented: “Guanghua is delighted to participate in this important Symposium. We have high hopes that, through programs like this, the XBMA Institute can contribute ideas, and ultimately actions, that will help make the global economy better and more efficient. As China’s integration into the global economy accelerates, cross-border M&A and investment promises to play an important role for Chinese companies to globalize and for multi-national companies to participate in China’s economic growth.”
“The theory underlying the Institute is simple,” said Professor William T. Allen, Director of NYU’s Pollack Center for Law & Business and another of the Symposium’s organizers. “Cross-border investment flows, whether in the form of direct investment, mergers or acquisitions of interests in existing firms, provide an important element in making the world economy more efficient. A more efficient global economy can potentially help the citizens of all trading countries. Thus it is important that business people, officials and academics engage in direct talks to understand and eliminate any unnecessary or unproductive impediments to these flows. The Institute is our cross-border cooperative effort to provide an important platform for such conversations.”
Commenting, Professor Arnoud De Meyer, Director, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, said: “Cambridge’s Judge Business School is delighted to contribute to this important event. The Symposium will provide a unique opportunity to explore the causes, lessons and likely outcomes for M&A activity and how it can help reinvent economic globalisation in the wake of the financial crisis.”
For more information on the event please visit http://www.xbma.org
