China: State-brokered nuclear power deal approved in US$100b

China National Nuclear (CNNC), China’s No. 2 nuclear power producer, will take over the country’s top nuclear power plant builder to create a company worth almost US$100 billion, the latest state-orchestrated marriage in the nation’s vast power sector.

The deal has been in works for almost a year as Beijing has pushed to streamline its bloated state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector, tackle rising corporate debt and make businesses more profitable through mergers, reductions in excess capacity and the closure of “zombie” firms.

Approval for the tie-up between CNNC and China Nuclear Engineering & Construction (CNEC) was announced by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission on Wednesday, January 31 in a one-line statement posted on its website.

In a filing later on Wednesday, CNEC’s listed unit said its controlling shareholder will be CNNC after the deal.

The combined company would have assets worth more than 620 billion yuan (US$99 billion) and a workforce of almost 150,000, according to Reuters’ calculations based on data on the firms’ websites and in company filings.

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal

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