Reuters -
China
will likely cut the number of its central government-owned conglomerates
to 40 through a series of mergers, as Beijing pushes forward a plan to
overhaul the country's underperforming state sector, state media
reported on Monday.
Currently, the central
government owns 112 conglomerates, including 277 public firms listed on
the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges with a market capitalization of
more than 10 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion), according to the official newspaper Economic Information Daily.
The
consolidation will first take place in commercial sectors, especially
in competitive industries, the paper said quoting an anonymous
authority.
"Resources will be increasingly concentrated on large enterprises to avoid cut-throat competition, like what CSR Corp Ltd (601766.SS) (1766.HK) and China CNR Corp Ltd (601299.SS) (6199.HK) did when competing against each other for projects overseas," the paper said.
