China Approves Another Shipping Merger

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday January 4, 2016

China has approved another shipping merger in a move that will see Sinotrans & CSC Holdings Co. (Sinotrans & CSC) become a wholly owed subsidiary of China Merchants Group Ltd. (China Merchants),

It was previously controlled by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASA)

"The reorganisation aims to achieve economies of scale and synergies, in particular in the areas of logistics, energy and bulk shipping, property development, ports and marine and off-shore engineering between the two groups, to speed up the development of an internationally competitive leading enterprise," said logistics provider Sinotrans Ltd. in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Financial details of the merger have not been reported, and neither China Merchants or Sinotrans & CSC have provided further comment on the deal.

It is reported that Sinotrans Ltd. will become a listed subsidiary of China Merchants Group, although Sinotrans & CSC will remain the controlling shareholder.

China Merchants Group is reported to be applying to the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges to ensure that it is not required to make a general offer of all Sinotrans Ltd. shares.

Upon news of the merger, Sinotrans Shipping is said to have experienced a 0.7 percent rise in it shares.

The development follows the December approval by China of a merger between China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co., (Cosco Group), and China Shipping (Group) Co..

In October, Ship & Bunker reported that, seemingly undeterred with the currently unfavourable outlook for dry bulk, Sinotrans Shipping Limited added six newbuild 38,800 DWT "energy-saving" bulkers to its orderbook.