NewSinotrans & CSC chief sees benefits in potential merger with tolls-to-shipping conglomerate China Merchants
Sinotrans & CSC Chairman Zhao Huxiang comments on the potential benefits of a merger with fellow state-owned China Merchants
A potential merger between Sinotrans & CSC and China Merchants shouldn’t be seen as beyond reason in spite of the sprawling scale and seeming overlap between the two state-owned companies, according to Zhao Huxiang, chairman of Sinotrans & CSC, who speculated publically on the concept at a press briefing Tuesday.
“Not many of our businesses overlap and we are not competitors in most areas, it will be a group level integration,” Zhao told a press gathering in Hong Kong.
State-owned China Merchants is in talks to take over Sinotrans & CSC, with the intent of making the logistics group into a subsidiary, according to a report by financial magazine Caixin on Monday.
Zhao said that the structure of Sinotrans & CSC’s listed platforms won’t be changed significantly in the event of a merger.
Sinotrans Ltd. and Sinotrans Shipping Ltd., the listed units of Sinotrans & CSC, said last week the group is planning a “strategic restructuring”.
Zhao stressed that a possible merger would be assessed on merit and was expected to strengthen the combined group’s competence in terms of capital, resources and other potential synergies.
In the wider scheme, Zhao said a merger would be relatively simpler to execute than the talks underway between China Shipping and Cosco, the shares of which were suspended from trading in August after the companies said merger discussions were underway.