When Caterpillar spent $886m to buy a small mining equipment group virtually unknown outside China, it was hoping to jump-start its sales in one of the world’s most promising markets.
Instead it has become the latest example of the missteps that have plagued foreign multinationals in China, some of which have been in the country for decades.
Caterpillar announced last week that it had uncovered “deliberate, multiyear, co-ordinated accounting misconduct” at the Chinese company, ERA Mining, it bought less than a year ago. Caterpillar said the discovery forced it to take a charge of about $580m – knocking out almost a tenth of the company’s 2012 earnings.