Firms chase overseas deals

However, Liao said he believes that South Africa, Australia and the Middle East will continue to be major investment destinations for Chinese energy players.

The increasing participation of private capital is another trend of China's outbound M&As.

For the first nine months of 2012, 62.2 percent of the outbound M&A deals involved private companies, the first time that private companies' deals outnumbered those of State-owned enterprises, according to He Zhenwei, deputy secretary-general of the China Industrial Overseas Development & Planning Association.

"In the past four years, the number of the private companies' overseas M&As has kept increasing," He said.

Dalian Wanda Group Co Ltd last year completed its $2.6 billion acquisition of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc, the world's second-largest theater chain, marking the first time Wanda has expanded its businesses overseas.

The deal is the largest outbound M&A of a Chinese private company on the record and was the third-largest deal in 2012.

To gain well-established brands and advanced technology in developed countries is the key strategy to become outstanding in the fierce domestic competition for Chinese companies, according to a report by US-based research firm Rhodium Group. The financial crisis and the Eurozone debt crisis have led to lower valuations of the foreign assets, which made the outbound M&A deals more attractive than domestic ones for Chinese buyers.

Moreover, the Chinese manufacturing companies can create a higher value by investing directly in foreign countries that are also their target markets.

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China's outbound M&As on the rise