TOKYO -- Japan Inc. is on a buying spree, especially in Southeast Asia, as companies look for acquisitions that can give them new growth opportunities. Yet in a survey by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, only 4% of Japanese companies said they had achieved satisfactory financial results from such overseas deals.
Of the roughly 100 companies that PwC asked, another 15% said that while they had not yet achieved the expected results, they were confident they had made concrete progress. But the upbeat responses stopped there. About 6% said they had made "absolutely no accomplishments," 13% said they had "not been able to gain positive results," and 9% said they are taking a "wait-and-see" approach. More than half of the respondents declined to answer the question.
