Chinese banks' internationalization to Brazila cross-border M&A perspective

Resumo

This dissertation analyzes the international expansion of Chinese financial institutions into Brazil through cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), focusing on three cases: Haitong Securities (Haitong), China Construction Bank (CCB), and Bank of Communications (BOCOM), all of which entered the Brazilian banking market during a concentrated 2014–2016 M&A window. Although these institutions entered the same host country during a similar period and through M&A-based strategies, they developed significantly different post-entry trajectories. The central question is why similar M&A-based entries into the same regulated emerging market produced different post-acquisition outcomes. Existing internationalization theories explain foreign market entry, but provide only partial explanations for post-entry governance, adaptation, and integration in emerging market-to-emerging market (EM–EM) banking contexts. This study adopts a qualitative, explanatory, and comparative multiple-case study design. It draws on multiple sources of documentary and archival data, including financial statements, transaction announcements, rating reports, regulatory disclosures, and media sources, triangulated with informal and unstructured professional discussions. Each case is analyzed through four main dimensions: motivation, entry mode, ownership and governance, and postacquisition integration. The theoretical framework integrates Ownership–Location– Internalization (OLI), Transaction Cost Theory (TCT), the Uppsala model, and the Exploration–Exploitation–Embeddedness (EEE) framework to examine the applicability and limitations of established internationalization theories in EM–EM banking M&A. The findings show that M&A can accelerate market entry by providing access to a licensed local platform, but it also transfers the target’s financial condition, business model, organizational legacy, unresolved risks, and minority-shareholder arrangements, which may function either as governance bridges or as integration constraints. They further show that formal ownership does not automatically translate into effective control; post-acquisition outcomes depend on governance mechanisms, parent support, local embeddedness, integration capability, target condition, and strategic fit. The study contributes by combining and contextualizing established internationalization theories to explain post-acquisition governance, adaptation, and value creation in regulated EM–EM banking M&A, and by developing a managerial roadmap for Chinese financial institutions entering Brazil through M&A. This study adopts a qualitative, explanatory, and comparative multiple-case study design. It draws on multiple sources of documentary and archival data, including financial statements, transaction announcements, rating reports, regulatory disclosures, and media sources, triangulated with informal and unstructured professional discussions. Each case is analyzed through four main dimensions: motivation, entry mode, ownership and governance, and post-acquisition integration. The theoretical framework integrates Ownership–Location–Internalization (OLI), Transaction Cost Theory (TCT), the Uppsala model, and the Exploration–Exploitation–Embeddedness (EEE) framework to examine the applicability and limitations of established internationalization theories in EM–EM banking M&A. The findings show that M&A can accelerate market entry by providing access to a licensed local platform, but it also transfers the target’s financial condition, business model, organizational legacy, unresolved risks, and minority-shareholder arrangements, which may function either as governance bridges or as integration constraints. They further show that formal ownership does not automatically translate into effective control; post-acquisition outcomes depend on governance mechanisms, parent support, local embeddedness, integration capability, target condition, and strategic fit. The study contributes by combining and contextualizing established internationalization theories to explain post-acquisition governance, adaptation, and value creation in regulated EM–EM banking M&A, and by developing a managerial roadmap for Chinese financial institutions entering Brazil through M&A.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Tese

Ano

2026

Instituição

Fundação Getulio Vargas

Fonte

Repositório da FGV

Idioma

Inglês

Acesso

Acesso aberto

Identificador

oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/40193

Temas

Governança

Palavras-chave

F&A transfronteiriçasSetor bancário China–BrasilInternacionalização de EMNEsIntegração pós-aquisiçãoCross-border M&AChina–Brazil bankingEMNE internationalizationPostacquisition integrationAdministração de empresasEmpresas - Fusão e incorporaçãoInstituições financeiras - ChinaFusões de bancosEmpresas multinacionais