They may have been the targets of acquisition by foreign buyers in recent years, but German companies are now increasingly looking to turn the tide.

Last year German shoemaker Adidas bought rival sports shoe firm Reebok for $3.8 billion (3.2 billion euros) and Deutsche Post acquired British logistics firm Exel for $5.5 billion.

In addition, German chemicals giant BASF is courting Engelhard, an American catalyst-maker, with a $4.9 billion bid, and chemical company Linde is eyeing British firm BOC, for which it's ready to shell out 11 billion euros.

Germany's shopping spree in North America, in particular, has sparked a lot of attention.

Focusing on core business

Frank Lutz, an investment banking expert at the Deutsche Bank, said the main reason German companies had been relatively uninvolved in mergers and acquisitions in the past was that they had instead focused too greatly on their core businesses.