Beijing is confident a Chinese bid to invest in Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Group would not be hurt by its rejection of Coca-Cola’s attempt to buy a Chinese juice maker, a Cabinet official said yesterday.
Australian opponents of the proposed investment by state-owned Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco) said the Coca-Cola rejection might help them win public support.
“I’m not worried about Chinalco’s case in Australia,” Chinese Deputy Commerce Minister Chen Jian (陳健) told reporters when asked whether the Coca-Cola rejection might fuel opposition to the Rio Tinto bid.
PHOTO: AP
Chen was speaking during a news conference about an upcoming Chinese investment fair.
Chinese regulators rejected Coca-Cola’s US$2.5 billion bid for Huiyuan Juice Group this week, saying it would hurt competition and raise prices. But industry analysts said Beijing’s real concern was to keep a successful local brand from falling into foreign hands.
Australian critics of the Rio Tinto investment said a foreign government company should not allowed to buy control of part of their nation’s mineral wealth.
Chen defended the Coca-Cola rejection as justified by Chinese anti-monopoly law and said Australia should review the Chinalco bid according to its own laws.
“As long as something is a monopoly, we will make a judgment,” he said. “They also have anti-trust laws. They will make a judgment according to their law.”
China encourages foreign direct investment but attempts to acquire established companies face regulatory hurdles.
Chen expressed confidence the Coca-Cola decision would not affect the willingness of foreign companies to invest in China. The country is a top investment destination, though the flow fell 15.8 percent last month from a year earlier to US$5.8 billion.
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