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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiViT who wrote (26413)	12/9/1997 9:17:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

China to Fuel Own Fortune 500 Companies Beijing selects 512 elite companies, to become world class conglomerates. You know, investing in China is pretty ease. The State tells you who will go bankrupt, and who will get government support. Cool............................................ muzi.net [Lateline 12/8/97] Beijing - Out of 375,000 Chinese state companies, 512 elites have been selected to become huge conglomerates as part of China's efforts to streamline its state-owned industries. These companies, still not formally announced, will form China's corporate blue-chip backbone, Reurter reported. According to the report, the list has come to light after the Chinese Communist Party's 15th Congress in September that endorsed industrial restructuring: lesser enterprises will be merged, auctioned off, transformed into joint-stock companies or allowed to fail [the term: swim or sink]. Six high-flyers of the list are expected to join the ranks of the world's top 500 corporations by 2010. The listed companies are chosen as the mightiest companies in each industrial sector. State offficials say they account for 40 percent of total national sales, 55 percent of total state assets and generate 85 percent of tax revenue. Preferential Policies Beijing gives its corporate elite a helping hand through easy bank loans, stock market listing, technological investment and help for mergers and acquisitions of other state enterprises. Already, 181 of the companies are listed on China's two stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Some are also listed abroad, such as Huaneng International Power Development Co, Shanghai Eastern Airline and Shanghai Petrochemical Co Ltd. "Good firms have golden opportunities to seek rapid expansion at rather low cost,'' said the official with the State Economic and Trade Commission. Mergers within the 512 companies in recent weeks have shortened the list. Chinese officials concede that size alone will not transform its corporate elite into world class players. "Chinese firms have to catch up with the management and efficiency of multinationals,'' acknowledged the State Planning Commission economist. The List Some of the listed companies are already giants by international standards. China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co, for instance, is one of the world's top four shippers with 600 vessels, 80,000 employees and routes to 150 countries. Bank of China also ranks among the Fortune 500 list. Topping the sales figures list is Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, which has a joint venture with German automaker Volkswagen AG. Another Shanghai-based firm, Huadong (Eastern China) Electric Power (Group) Co ranks second, and crude oil producer Daqing Petroleum in Heilongjiang province comes in third. Almost every industry is represented from China North Industries Group, an arms supplier, to computer maker Founder Group and textile mills. Crude oil producers, refiners, steel makers and non-ferrous smelters are also on the list. Missing are state trading giants such as China National Chemicals Import and Export Corp (Sinochem) and China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Import and Export Corp (COFCO). Geographically, the firms are most heavily clustered in developed areas along the coast and in heavy industry centres in the northeast and in southwest Sichuan province. Some regions ranked by number of companies listed: Shanghai 47 Liaoning 38 Hebei 31 Jiangsu 29 Beijing 26 Shanxi 14 Zhejiang 11 Tianjin 10 Inner Mongolia 8 Qinghai 2