Inland Anhui province is inviting foreign investors to help restructure or buy out 33 of its state-owned companies.
The firms are part of a portfolio of 329 projects on display at a trade fair today and tomorrow at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, which provincial leaders hope will attract billions of US dollars in investment.
Most of the foreign investment in China has been channelled into green-field projects.
But mergers and acquisitions have been gaining popularity, with Beijing warming to the idea of enlisting foreign help to clean up its inefficient state sector. In a watershed deal last year Emerson Network Power of the United States bought Huawei Technologies, a Shenzhen-based telecommunications equipment maker.
The most prominent among the 33 Anhui companies is Hefei Iron and Steel Group, whose annual steel output is about 300,000 tonnes, according to Li Chaodong, vice-director of the Anhui Provincial Development and Planning Commission.
Although many of these state companies were troubled, some were financially healthy, he said.