BEIJING, July 18 -- The number of China's domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&As) jumped in the first half of the year as funds raised in buoyant equity markets were put to use to consolidate fragmented industries, analysts said yesterday.

Domestic deal volumes grew from 317 in the first six months of 2006 to 454 in the first half of 2007, according to data by the industry journal M&A Asia.

"With all the attention on China's overseas acquisitions, it is often forgotten that many Chinese companies have attractive and immediate acquisition opportunities at home at the moment," said Gabriel Wong, a corporate finance partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), an international accounting firm.

M&A Asia statistics also show that combined incoming and domestic deals in China increased by 20 percent to 808 in the first six months of 2007.

Total value of the disclosed deals in the first six months fell slightly, however, to $27.6 billion compared to $29.4 billion last year.

"Deal value is particularly difficult to interpret because there are many large one-off transactions, such as sales of assets by State-owned groups to listed parents and backdoor listings," said Zhao Liang, director of PwC's transactions strategy team.

Industries that have seen high volumes of deal activity include sectors that have been restructured from full State ownership, such as energy, steel and cement, according to PwC.

"In newer, deregulated sectors, M&A activity is also strong, but is driven by market imperatives," said Wong, citing the retail sector as an example, where national chains are forming from regional and city-based businesses.

The volume of announced overseas acquisitions increased by 72 percent, to 31 from 18 in the first half of last year. But with no acquisitions larger than $1 billion in 2007 - two oil deals of $5.9 billion were announced in the same period of 2006 - the value of outbound deals decreased by 64 percent.

"But the range of Chinese companies engaged in outbound investment is now growing, expanding from oil, mining and metals companies to telecoms and other industries," Wong added.

Looking forward to the remainder of 2007, domestic M&A activity is likely to continue to grow and in the process create larger national companies that will become more effective competitors at home and abroad, Wong said.

He noted that overseas investment will gradually increase, with a broader range of large State-owned groups taking the lead. Incoming M&A activity is likely to grow more slowly until valuation expectations subside, and financial investors are likely to remain focused on minority positions in larger transactions until they sense a change in the regulatory approval landscape, he said.