Chris Bryant, Columnist

Sorry China, Maybe Europe's Not For Sale After All

Syngenta and Aixtron show need for deeper M&A discount.

October 24, 2016 at 1:10 PM UTC

Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Europe. Previously, he was a reporter for the Financial Times.

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Call it Europe's new China M&A discount. Investors marked down Syngenta and Aixtron shares by about 7 percent at one point on Monday because of fears that European regulators might delay or block their acquisition by Chinese suitors.

There's no certainty either deal will be scuppered. But it's reasonable to assume European targets will trade at a bigger discount to a Chinese bidder's offer after today.