China Merchants Holdings (CMH) is to inject port-related assets worth up to 1.2 billion yuan (about HK$1.12 billion) into its Hong Kong-listed flagship China Merchants Holdings (International) (CMHI).
But it will wait until market conditions improve before going ahead.
The move will make red-chip CMHI the sole manager of the group's port assets, increase its operating scale as an infrastructure unit and prepare it for foreign competition after China enters the WTO.
CMH, controlled by the mainland Ministry of Communications, plans to shed non-core manufacturing, tourism and hotel assets as part of an ongoing restructuring. It will focus on property, logistics, financial services, transportation and infrastructure.
Its 52.2 per cent-held subsidiary CMHI manages ports and toll roads, and has interests in manufacturing.
CMH chairman Qin Xiao told a press briefing on the restructuring yesterday the company would sell all its port-related assets not already held by CMHI to the Hong Kong subsidiary. The assets are valued at about 1.2 billion yuan, the bulk of which is accounted for by CMH's B-share China Merchants Shekou Holdings. CMHI has total net assets of about 10 billion yuan.