IN one of China's biggest state enterprise mergers, two arms of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation will form a new conglomerate with the approval of the State Council.
The China Trust and Investment Corporation for Foreign Economic Relations and Trade (FOTIC), one of the mainland's largest financial institutions with assets of more than US$10 billion, (HK$77 billion) will be incorporated into the China National Chemicals Import and Export Corporation (Sinochem), one of China's largest trading companies.
Sinochem ranked as the top trading enterprise in China in 1993, with an import-export volume of US$6.63 million.
Subsidiary Sinochem Finance will be merged into FOTIC after it formally joins Sinochem.
Once the conglomerate is formed, FOTIC's government loans will be transferred to the China Import and Export Bank (CIEB), one of the three policy banks established by the Government last year.
In addition, FOTIC's related businesses, including loans from European, Middle Eastern and Asian banks which were re-lent by FOTIC totalling US$12.7 billion, will be handed over to the CIEB.
