China set up a new management company to speed up the restructuring of smaller and uncompetitive state-owned enterprises, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said yesterday.
China Reform Holdings Corp Ltd (中國國新控股) will own weaker companies in industries that are not key to national and economic security, according to a statement on the Web site of the commission, which supervises the biggest state-owned enterprises, including the parent companies of China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), the world’s biggest mobile-phone company by users, and PetroChina Co (中石油).
China injected 22 smaller enterprises into 14 state-owned companies ranked among the world’s top 500 since SASAC was set up in 2003, boosting their competitiveness, the statement said.
PROFITS UP
The combined net profit at companies owned by the central government surged 53.1 percent in the first 10 months of this year from a year earlier, as the nation’s economy recovered from the financial crisis, SASAC data shows.
China Reform Holdings, which will have an initial registered capital of 4.5 billion yuan (US$676.5 million), will support companies with market potential by providing capital and helping with share sales, the commission said.
The new company will ensure the “smooth” closure of unsustainable units by shouldering the costs of reform and protecting employees’ rights, the statement said.
Former Baosteel Group Corp (寶鋼集團) chairwoman Xie Qihua (謝企華), 67, will be chairwoman of the new company.
Xie, who was chairwoman and general manager of Baosteel Group between 2003 and 2006, retired in January 2007 to head the China Iron & Steel Industry Association.
SHORING UP STEEL
China is backing mergers among steelmakers and metals producers to create companies better able to compete with overseas rivals and that have more power in talks with material suppliers.
Baosteel acquired smaller rival Xinjiang Bayi Iron & Steel Group (新疆八一鋼鐵集團) in January 2007, its first purchase since it was formed in 1998.
SASAC administers 122 companies owned by Beijing, Xinhua news agency reported on Oct. 21.
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