December 30 - According to China Merchants Group, the Hong Kong based state-owned conglomerate with businesses in transportation, finance and real estate, is set to acquire China's Sinotrans & CSC Holdings.
Previously directly supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), Sinotrans & CSC Holdings is China's biggest integrated logistics service provider, with a significant interesting in project forwarding.
This is the second strategic restructuring of two state-owned shipping-related conglomerates authorised by the Chinese authorities in the last month, following the earlier reorganisation of China Ocean Shipping Group and China Shipping Group.
HLPFI understands that the reorganisation aims to achieve economies of scale and synergies, in particular in the areas of logistics, energy and bulk shipping, property development, ports and marine and offshore engineering between the two groups, to speed up the development of an internationally competitive enterprise.
It would appear that the move is part of China's push to streamline its state-owned sector and make it more efficient as economic growth continues to slow.
