More privately-owned Chinese companies are looking to the West for investment opportunities, and a new chamber has been set up in Beijing to help facilitate such efforts.

Lenovo did it with IBM's PC division in 2005, and so did Geely last year, buying over Sweden's Volvo for US$1.3 billion.

And there may be more overseas acquisitions by Chinese companies next year.

Fosun, China's largest private conglomerate said it's already looking to acquire Western companies in the luxury and healthcare sectors.

Liang Xinjun, CEO of Fosun, said: "EU-US consumer spending has deteriorated in last three to four years and will continue to fall in the next four to five years. Growth of their enterprises will be limited or even fall. So we can buy about 10 to 30 per cent shares of their companies, become their top or second shareholder, and then bring them into the Chinese market to grow."

And that's the main goal for the newly set up China International Chamber of Commerce for the Private Sector, which held its first forum on Thursday for members.

Besides providing financial and investment support, the chamber also hopes to help resolve differences between overseas and Chinese companies during the acquisition process.

But even as some Chinese companies look overseas, others are struggling amid rising production costs and high interest rates.

Some said this will help weed out firms that are poorly managed.

Yin Mingshan, CEO of Lifan Group, said: "On the flipside, if we can overcome this through technology innovation, job enhancement and management improvement, we'll become more competitive."

And comparatively speaking, there are about 150,000 state-owned enterprises here in China who have access to three quarters of capital in the country, while the four to five million privately-owned enterprises will have to put up with high lending rates in the market.

But things may change in 2012, with the chamber now set up and the government promising more help.

channelnewsasia.com