WITH executives from more than 200 firms lining up and begging Qingdao Haier Group president Zhang Ruimin to take them over, Mr Zhang could be just the man China needs to push forward its unprecedented privatisation drive to revitalise the ailing state sector.
Mr Zhang said his conglomerate, the largest in the mainland's home electrical appliance sector, would heed the call of Chinese President Jiang Zemin and raise more money on the capital markets - both at home and overseas - to fund acquisitions and mergers.
'Our aim is to become one of the world's 500 largest firms in the next century,' he said yesterday at the Great Hall of the People, where Mr Jiang called for privatisation, mergers and acquisitions.
The Haier Group, which rang up 6.2 billion yuan (about HK$5.76 billion) in sales last year, plans to increase its sales to 10 billion yuan in 1997 and at least 20 billion yuan by 2000.
Mr Zhang said Mr Jiang's speech on Friday on the strategic re-organisation of the state sector was an incentive for the group to take more aggressive steps towards acquisitions.
Mr Zhang said he would finance the acquisitions by listing the firms' assets on the stock market. The group, one of 33 state firms approved by the Central Government for B-share issues, is launching a U$100-million B-share issue to foreign investors.
He said the company could take over poorly-managed firms at low prices, particularly home electrical appliance firms which face oversupply in a dwindling market. In the early 1980s, China imported hundreds of production lines to produce home electrical appliances. But most such plants have never taken off due to low standards and keen competition from foreign brands.
