China Inc’s decision to splash the cash on foreign takeovers at an unprecedented rate has propelled UBS to its best-ever start to a year in the global M&A rankings, catapulting the Swiss bank from outside the top 10 a year ago to a top-three slot nestled among Wall Street’s biggest houses.

With just a week left of the first quarter, preliminary data from the research firm Dealogic, published on March 23, puts outbound merger and takeover activity announced by Chinese companies so far this year at $104.3 billion - just a whisker shy of the $106.4 billion record volume for a full year that was set in 2015.