Dealmaking in China: buying high

Deal-meisters sense a huge opportunity in China, and some are starting to act in gutsy ways. The Blackstone Group certainly has jumped on the opportunity. Not only has it inked a deal to sell a 9.4 percent stake in itself to a Chinese sovereign wealth fund, but has committed $600 million to the chemicals company China National BlueStar Group. It's also staffing up quickly.

Investment Dealers' Digest notes that a feeding frenzy of sort is developing among private equity firms and investment banks. One contrarian view of all this is that they are rushing in at an iffy time. True, the market is only now opening up. But I just hope the timing works out. There's one view out there that China is setting itself up for a big crash, financial and economic, along the lines of the great Japanese bubble pop that took place in the 1990s.  

For more:
- here's the Investment Dealers' Digest article
- here's a Financial Times article on the chances of crash

Related articles:
- State-owned China banks on the rise?
- More on China and Blackstone