According to Flush iFinD data, according to the statistics of the first announcement date and the transaction buyer is a listed company, in the first 11 months of this year, a total of 1,750 listed companies disclosed 2,168 mergers and acquisitions, an increase from 1,569 listed companies and 2,056 mergers and acquisitions in the same period last year. Experts expect that driven by multiple factors such as the continuous release of policy dividends and the demand for industrial integration and upgrading, the number and scale of A-share mergers and acquisitions will reach a new high in 2025, and will show the characteristics of industrial mergers and acquisitions becoming mainstream, payment methods are diversified and more market-oriented, and the proportion of non-related party transactions has increased significantly, and A-share mergers and acquisitions are expected to continue to heat up in the next 2-3 years.

Hundreds of billions of mergers and acquisitions are frequent, and multi-industry integration is accelerating

In 2025, there will be no shortage of 100 billion M&A cases in the A-share M&A market. In August this year, China Shenhua announced that it intends to acquire the equity of 13 companies under the controlling shareholder National Energy Group through the issuance of shares and cash payment, with a total target asset scale of 258.362 billion yuan, becoming one of the largest industrial mergers and acquisitions cases during the year. In addition, major transactions such as the absorption and merger of China Shipbuilding are not only huge in scale, but also have important demonstration significance in terms of industrial integration logic and transaction structure innovation.

The integration of the brokerage industry is also eye-catching. Following Guotai Junan's absorption and merger of Haitong Securities, on November 19, 2025, CICC, Dongxing Securities, and Cinda Securities issued the "Announcement on Suspension of Trading on Planning Major Asset Restructuring". The three brokerages are planning to absorb and merge Dongxing Securities and Cinda Securities by issuing A-shares to all A-share exchange shareholders of Dongxing Securities and issuing A-shares to all A-share exchange shareholders of Cinda Securities.

In addition to the integration of energy, finance and other fields, mergers and acquisitions in strategic emerging industries are also significantly active. Emerging industries such as semiconductors, intelligent manufacturing, and biomedicine have become the focus of mergers and acquisitions, and enterprises have accelerated technological innovation, expanded market share, and seized the commanding heights of future development through mergers and acquisitions.

Taking the semiconductor industry as an example, the integration of mergers and acquisitions in this industry continues to heat up, and the integration of leading enterprises is accelerating. Among them, the two leading companies in the field of wafer foundry have made important acquisitions this year, aiming to enhance business synergy and achieve deep integration. According to relevant announcements, SMIC intends to issue shares to purchase 49% of the equity of SMIC North Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Hua Hong Company intends to purchase a total of 97.4988% of the equity of Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Co., Ltd. and raise supporting funds from Shanghai Huali (Group) Co., Ltd. and other four counterparties by issuing shares and paying cash.

Tian Lihui, dean of the Institute of Financial Development of Nankai University, told the Economic Information Daily that the M&A boom in strategic emerging industries stems from three levels: policy, technology and industrial chain. It mainly includes policy-driven, and the "six mergers and acquisitions" clearly support the integration of hard technology; technology breaks through demand, and enterprises quickly acquire core technologies such as chips and AI through mergers and acquisitions; The security demands of the industrial chain, and the vertical integration of leading enterprises strengthens the resilience of the supply chain.

Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, further pointed out that the motivation for strategic emerging industries to become a hot spot for mergers and acquisitions also includes the "spillover effect" after the tightening of IPOs, the window period for industrial upgrading, and the "chain length" strategy of local state-owned assets and central enterprises. Among them, IPO reviews will become stricter in 2024, and a large number of high-quality unprofitable assets originally planned to be listed independently will be transferred to mergers and acquisitions. Local governments improve the regional industrial chain through the acquisition of holding leading enterprises, while central enterprises achieve "three concentrations" through mergers and acquisitions, that is, promote the concentration of state-owned capital in important industries and key areas related to national security and the lifeblood of the national economy, in public services, emergency response capabilities, and public welfare fields related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and in forward-looking strategic emerging industries.

The active performance of the M&A and restructuring market is inseparable from the continuous optimization and strong promotion at the policy level. From the central to the local government, a series of strong and targeted policies have been intensively introduced, providing a solid institutional guarantee and broad development space for the mergers and acquisitions and restructuring market.

"Since 2024, the M&A and restructuring market has ushered in many positive signals." According to the open source securities research report, a series of strong and targeted policies have been intensively introduced. These policies establish the logic of mergers and acquisitions of listed companies with industrial integration as the core, promote the continuous optimization of the review mechanism, and develop in the direction of "small and fast" and "improving inclusiveness". This not only stimulates the vitality of the capital market, but also injects new impetus into industrial development.

At the local level, many provinces and cities have introduced relevant measures to increase support for mergers and acquisitions of local enterprises. The pace of setting up M&A funds by local state-owned assets is also accelerating. Mergers and acquisitions are becoming an important means for local governments to improve the rate of asset securitization.

Tian Lihui said that the effect of the policy "combination punch" is prominent. The China Securities Regulatory Commission's "Six Articles on Mergers and Acquisitions" relaxed restrictions in the field of science and technology, and local governments such as Shenzhen and Shanghai issued action plans to guide the concentration of resources to new quality productivity, activate market vitality, and major restructuring events surged year-on-year.

"The various policies issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and local governments have played a good guiding and catalytic role." Zhang Lei, an expert at China International Economic Consulting Co., Ltd., told reporters that the policy of the China Securities Regulatory Commission mainly guides mergers and acquisitions to be legally compliant and smoother from the aspects of regulations and practical guidelines, and at the same time gives clearer and broader definitions of various core elements including payment instruments and support types. Local governments focus on providing support from the perspective of substantive policy dividends such as tax burden reduction and financing support.

The demand for industrial upgrading is strong, and the popularity of mergers and acquisitions may continue

Driven by multiple factors, the industry generally believes that the A-share mergers and acquisitions and restructuring market will continue to be active and is expected to heat up further.

According to the Bohai Securities Research Report, mergers and acquisitions, as an important market tool to support economic transformation and upgrading and achieve high-quality development, on the one hand, can release more industrial capital into new quality productivity, strategic emerging industries and other fields by smoothing the virtuous circle of "fundraising, investment, management and withdrawal"; on the other hand, it will also help promote the injection of high-quality assets and improve the quality of listed companies. After the introduction of policies such as the new "Nine National Articles" and "Six Articles on Mergers and Acquisitions" in 2024, the M&A and restructuring market will be active, and this state will continue until 2025 and will be further strengthened, and the market is experiencing a new wave of mergers and acquisitions.

Zhang Lei analyzed the performance and prospects of the M&A and restructuring market in 2025 from three dimensions. First, the market behavior is active. The number of mergers and acquisitions and the scale of transactions are expected to hit a new high in the A-share market in recent years, and mergers and acquisitions have become a positive topic in the capital market, which is in line with the general direction of the country's activation of the capital market and is welcomed by various market participants such as regulators and investors. The second is the diversification of participating actors. The two parties to the transaction basically cover all kinds of business entities, which fully reflects their market breadth. Third, it covers a wide range of industries. M&A and restructuring is the embodiment of the overall transformation and upgrading of the national economy in the open market, covering the entire ecology of the industrial chain, touching all aspects of the economic field, and will continue in the foreseeable future.

In addition, the proportion of cash acquisitions and cash + equity portfolios has increased significantly; Tools such as directional convertible bonds, M&A loans, installment payments + performance gambling have appeared in large numbers. Compared with the pattern of diversified expansion and related injection in previous years, the proportion of A-share non-related party transactions has increased significantly this year, marking the beginning of the A-share M&A market to return to its roots, and the prototype of the tripartite game of "buyers really pick assets, sellers really negotiate prices, and banks really lend" has emerged.

"In the next 2-3 years, mergers and acquisitions will continue to heat up, which will attract and drive more business entities and larger-scale capital/assets to participate in it, and the fundamental reason lies in the deep needs of national economic transformation and capital market development." Zhang Lei said that in the long run, mergers and acquisitions will cover all aspects of nine strategic emerging industries and even new quality productivity, and short-term phased hot spots will include artificial intelligence and application industries, state-owned enterprise reform/integration policy fields, etc.

Bai Wenxi also believes that the M&A market is likely to continue to heat up in the next two years. First of all, the established New Deal framework (six mergers and acquisitions, directional convertible bonds, differentiated consideration, and fast review channels) established in 2024-2025 is likely to be extended to 2027, forming a continuous policy "honeymoon period". Secondly, semiconductors, new energy, and innovative drugs are still in the two-wheel drive period of "technology iteration + capacity expansion", and leading enterprises need to continuously strengthen technology nodes or production capacity, and mergers and acquisitions are the most efficient path. In addition, the pace of IPOs is expected to continue to "control quantity and improve quality", and more unprofitable but technologically leading companies will choose to be exited by mergers and acquisitions, providing a sufficient target pool for the secondary market.