China’s CNR, CSR halt share trading amid merger reports
Written by KeithTwo huge Chinese rolling stock manufacturers, China CNR Corp. and CSR Corp., have suspended trading of their shares following reports in the Chinese media that the Chinese government is looking to merge the two companies.
A report published on the Chinese business news website Caixin on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014, says unnamed sources within China Railways Corp. (CRC) and the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) have confirmed that the government is planning a merger of the two suppliers with the aim of creating a more competitive market player to boost the international presence of China’s railway industry.
Such a move conceivably could alter the international playing field amongst rolling stock suppliers more established in the global marketplace.
The sources claim that the two companies have submitted a merger plan to SASAC. CSR wants CNR to delist from the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges but CNR is pushing for the creation of a new parent company with the two suppliers as subsidiaries. SASAC is said to favour the CSR plan, although the report says CRC, the largest customer of the two suppliers, is opposing a merger in any form and the manufacturers are “lukewarm.”
Both China CNR Corp., established in 2000, and CSR Corp., launched in 2002, have their headquarters in Beijing, the nation’s capital.
