Last Thursday morning, Wang Guolin went to his office as usual at one of the 400 Hua Lian supermarkets in Shanghai and leafed through a copy of that morning's Liberation Daily left by his secretary on his desk.
On page nine, he read a short item that his company, the biggest retailer in China, had been merged with three other large state firms in Shanghai, to form the city's biggest corporate entity.
'I knew nothing about it, nor did any of my colleague. It took us all by surprise. We do not know what it means. Will our shop be closed as part of a rationalisation and will we and our staff keep their jobs?' Mr Wang said.
Hua Lian has been merged with the Shanghai Friendship Group (which owns Lian Hua, China's second-biggest retailer and Mr Wang's biggest competitor), Number One Department Store and Shanghai Materials Group, to form Shanghai Bai Lian Group.
Their combined revenue last year was 75 billion yuan (about HK$70.2 billion), making it 13th among China's top 500 companies and Shanghai's biggest corporation, ahead of Baoshan Steel, which had revenue last year of 71.07 billion yuan. It includes five listed firms and is China's biggest retail and distribution group.
The final decision for the merger was taken at a meeting on the afternoon of April 6, attended by senior managers of the four firms, top officials of the Shanghai government and was chaired by Feng Guoqin, the vice-mayor responsible for state assets. Also present was Ling Baoheng, vice-chairman of the State Assets Management Committee (SAMC), a new body set up by the National People's Congress last month to run the billions of yuan of assets held by the government.