In an increasing number of key positions, female leaders are becoming more prominent, serving as both participants in industry changes and drivers of organizational development. This dialogue explores the professional journey, decision-making, and management philosophies of female executives from the finance and industrial sectors, examining how female leadership continues to grow within the current business and social environment.

This edition features a conversation with Cai Ling, Lead Partner for M&A and Financing at PwC China. Cai specializes in leading transaction advisory services and has over 25 years of experience, having participated in numerous cross-border deals.

Chinese enterprises have transformed significantly amid the wave of globalization—shifting from acquiring resources to buying into the future. Today, strategic mergers and acquisitions are on the rise. Companies are no longer solely pursuing scale; instead, they are using M&A to access new technologies and enter emerging sectors. A growing number of traditional firms are proactively seeking second, third, and even fourth growth curves on a global scale.

“M&A isn’t just about writing a report and calling it done—you’re dealing with people,” Cai noted. While negotiations may appear to focus on price and terms, they are fundamentally a balancing act among differing positions and interests. Her team’s role involves clarifying these varied demands and identifying equilibrium points that keep transactions moving forward.

Reflecting on the past two decades of Chinese companies going global, it’s difficult to summarize the journey in simple linear terms. From tentative initial steps to a surge in activity, followed by a return to rationality and now entering a more strategic phase, the path has been shaped by cycles, policies, and corporate capabilities. Cai’s own career has evolved in parallel with these trends.

At the start of the millennium, Cai joined PwC China’s cross-border M&A team. At that time, Chinese enterprises were just beginning their international expansion. Her work primarily involved two areas: helping multinational companies enter China for strategic investment, and assisting Chinese firms—especially private enterprises—in attracting then-novel U.S. dollar funds. “The focus back then was more on ‘bringing in,’” she recalled, a phase that lasted about five to six years.

Following the 2007–2008 global financial crisis, a reassessment of global asset prices brought numerous high-quality targets to light in European and U.S. markets. By then, many Chinese companies had accumulated substantial capital. “We were pushed along by the times,” Cai remarked. From 2008 onward, her team’s focus shifted rapidly toward overseas acquisitions by Chinese enterprises, marking a wave of corporate expansion. During this period, the rationale for going global evolved from resource acquisition to industrial upgrading and global positioning.

However, this wave also had a distinct “trial” character. “Many companies seized opportunities as they arose but hadn’t fully thought through their objectives,” Cai admitted. Although the number of cross-border M&A deals surged between 2008 and 2016, many projects failed to deliver expected results post-acquisition.

Subsequently, as quality assets became scarcer, valuations rose, and overseas investors returned to the market, competition intensified. Chinese firms’ M&A activities grew more rational. At the same time, regulators began strengthening guidance on non-rational outbound investments.

Around 2020, the pandemic brought cross-border M&A to a temporary halt. Travel restrictions and due diligence challenges stalled numerous deals. Yet Cai viewed this as a cooling-off period. “Companies began reflecting on why they were going global and where their globalization capabilities stood,” she said.

Since 2023, cross-border M&A has gradually recovered. Cai’s team completed its first post-pandemic overseas acquisition for a Chinese enterprise, focusing on the semiconductor supply chain and closely tied to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

When asked to summarize recent M&A trends in one phrase, Cai pointed to “truly strategic M&A.” She observed that companies are increasingly using acquisitions to access technology and enter new fields. Traditional firms, for instance, are actively pursuing growth in areas such as robotics and industrial automation, while new energy companies are turning their attention to energy infrastructure and cooling technologies driven by AI computing demands.

Moreover, a growing number of transactions are concentrated in emerging industries and early-stage growth companies, such as those driven by innovative business models or breakthrough technologies like novel drug development. However, many of these firms, despite advanced technology and novel approaches, lack mature financial data and face higher uncertainties. As a result, transaction structures have evolved. “Earn-out mechanisms have made a comeback, and noticeably so,” Cai mentioned. Buyers, while accepting high valuations, often use earn-outs or deferred payments to share risks.

“These changes are making M&A more complex,” she added. “With increased complexity, demands on transaction structuring and integration capabilities are also rising.”

In mature overseas M&A markets, companies naturally appoint lead financial advisors. Shareholders and management are relatively separate, and professional managers rely more on external advisors to execute deals. However, this logic doesn’t fully apply in China. Cai noted that even in family businesses transitioning to second- or third-generation leadership, shareholders and management often remain closely aligned. This means companies expect more from external advisors than just closing deals. “If it were just about execution, many firms might feel they could handle it themselves,” she said.

As such, Cai prefers to define lead transaction advisors as integrators and connectors. Their work begins with understanding corporate strategy—helping clients clarify why they want to acquire—before leveraging global networks to screen targets, create long and short lists, advance negotiations and due diligence, and support post-merger integration and long-term value creation. “It’s not about one team doing everything; it’s about building a system to get things done,” she explained.

Increasingly, companies are focusing on future potential. Even with audit reports in hand, they dig deeper—removing non-recurring or unsustainable factors—to assess normalized profitability. At the same time, firms are rapidly improving their understanding of M&A transaction structures. Most now recognize the need to establish efficient deal frameworks early on, especially when funding originates domestically. Post-acquisition, challenges include not only integrating assets and technology but also arranging capital repatriation compliantly while minimizing tax and management costs. If these issues aren’t addressed during planning, they tend to magnify later.

“In the past, deals were done one by one. Now, companies are more inclined to use M&A as an opportunity to rethink their global footprint,” Cai said. Considerations include where to place R&D, how to configure production, and how to manage procurement and marketing across global divisions—elevating M&A to the level of overall global operational design.

“We often say that M&A is only the first step of a long journey,” Cai emphasized. Closing a deal is never the end; the real test lies in implementing the originally envisioned strategy afterward. Getting ahead of the work is crucial. During due diligence, helping clients decide whether to invest and how to manage post-acquisition is a key part of her team’s role.

For example, when traditional firms consider entering cutting-edge fields like medical devices via M&A, they no longer evaluate targets in isolation. They also assess their own team’s capabilities and proactively search globally for management talent that can ensure new business directions succeed.

Chinese companies have also learned from past integration missteps. Initially, many acquirers made sweeping changes post-deal—such as shutting overseas production and moving it back to China for cost savings. However, such simple relocation strategies often fell short and sometimes undermined the acquired company’s competitiveness.

Gradually, firms realized the importance of local management. Respecting local market conditions, management systems, and cultural differences is essential. In Europe, for instance, many high-quality companies are “small but beautiful,” specializing in niche segments with highly customized products—a stark contrast to China’s mass-production model. Forcing integration under a one-size-fits-all system often leads to failure.

But respecting local practices doesn’t mean hands-off management. While preserving local autonomy, companies are exploring how to achieve genuine synergy and empowerment. This involves addressing a series of detailed management questions: Who handles daily operations? How should reporting lines between parent and subsidiary be designed? Which business areas can create synergy, and how should integration be phased? Should incentive mechanisms be designed for key local managers? These elements form the core of post-merger integration.

Bridging different business ecosystems and governance systems is a universal challenge for globalizing firms. Cross-border M&A involves not only integrating assets and capital but also aligning institutions, cultures, and mindsets. Cai often encounters deals that have stalled after a year or two of talks. The issue usually isn’t the transaction itself but a failure to truly understand each other.

She cited a recent example: a multinational aiming to acquire a Chinese SME. After months of negotiation, the foreign party proposed a complex, creative payment structure, while the Chinese side found the price unacceptably low. Cai’s team discovered that the core disagreement wasn’t about price but trust. The buyer struggled to comprehend the target’s high profit margins, leading to risk-hedging through complicated terms; the seller felt the pricing logic undervalued the business. “In certain niche markets in China, companies genuinely achieve high margins,” Cai explained. Without resolving such perceptual gaps, negotiations can deadlock. In such cases, she finds it best to go back to basics—reanalyzing financials in a way that aligns with international investor logic.

Misunderstandings also arise from decision-making rhythms. Chinese firms often decide quickly, especially when key shareholders are involved. In contrast, multinationals emphasize process and compliance, resulting in longer approval chains. While one party may reach a clear intent, the other might need weeks or months for internal review—a timing mismatch that can breed doubt.

Looking back, Cai’s career path hasn’t followed a typical “finance professional” trajectory. She studied Anglo-American literature in China and spent five years as a public English teacher. During that time, she also took on translation work, observing how companies negotiated projects and made investments. Later, she decided to study abroad, starting from scratch in finance. In a basic corporate finance course, she first encountered M&A systematically. “That’s when I realized business growth isn’t just organic—it can leap forward through capital,” she recalled. “I found it fascinating.” In 2005, when PwC China was just starting its M&A practice, she joined—and has been there for two decades.

Moving from frontline execution to management, Cai describes the shift as a change in perspective. Early on, she focused on specific tasks. With experience, she recognized that many problems arise from seeing only part of the picture. Now, as a business leader, she considers not just individual projects but entire business lines, team structures, and sustainability.

When it comes to her team, Cai repeatedly emphasizes the importance of “people.” “M&A isn’t about finishing a report—you’re facing a group of individuals,” she said. In any deal, there are founders, chairs, professional managers, and counterparties—each with their own goals. Superficially, it’s about price and terms; fundamentally, it’s a negotiation among differing stakes and demands. Her team’s role is to clarify these interests and find a balance that keeps the transaction advancing.

“AI may eventually handle many tasks—data analysis, research, even matching deals,” she noted. “But getting a group of people to sit down and agree on a direction—that’s still hard to replace.” That’s why, beyond professional skills, she values interpersonal abilities, foresight, and a holistic view when hiring and developing talent.

Foresight, Cai believes, is critical for lead advisors—like driving a car: speed matters less than stability, which requires looking far ahead, not just a short distance. In M&A, this means not fixating on immediate gains at the expense of long-term client interests. Advisors must anticipate challenges across multiple dimensions.

In developing her team, Cai’s approach is straightforward: push people into the deep end. In multinational project meetings, when she feels members are ready, she lets them present and negotiate on their own. “These skills are built through practice, not teaching,” she said. “If you never step onto the field, you’ll never know what it’s really like.” Only by engaging directly in complex communications can one learn to navigate and control the situation.