8 State firms sign restructuring contracts

    EIGHT Central Government-owned enterprises signed restructuring contracts Tuesday, China Securities Journal reported yesterday.

    These companies are Aviation Industry Corp. of China, China National Machinery Industry Corp., China Poly Group Corp., China First Heavy Industries, China North Industries Group Corp., China South Industries Group Corp., China Reform Holdings Corp. and China Nuclear Engineering Construction Corp. Aviation Industry Corp. of China will transfer its real estate business to China Poly, the paper said, while other companies will cooperate on high pressure and temperature machinery production among other areas.

    Jianghuai Auto nears deal on cooperation

    ANHUI Jianghuai Automobile Co. yesterday said it’s planning to cooperate with a company it didn’t identify, six months after chairman An Jin said the Shanghai-listed automaker was in talks with Volkswagen AG.

    The memorandum Jianghuai plans to sign will have major impact, the company said in a statement. Jianghuai was actively pursuing joint venture tie-ups with foreign carmakers, An said in March. The chairman of one of China’s few major automakers lacking a foreign joint venture partners said he viewed leading multinational carmakers as role models Jianghuai could learn from.

    ChemChina extends deadline for Syngenta offer

    CHINA National Chemical Corp. (ChemChina) has extended the tender offer to buy shares of Swiss seeds giant Syngenta AG to Nov. 8, the company said Tuesday.

    ChemChina announced its US$43 billion takeover of Syngenta in February. ChemChina said 17.9 million shares had been tendered by holders as of Friday last week. It has extended the deadline for the tender offer once previously. The deal is pending approval from the European Union, among other jurisdictions.

    CITIC Securities may sell CLSA brokerage unit

    CITIC Securities Ltd., which bought CLSA Ltd. three years ago for about US$1.2 billion, considered selling the Hong Kong-based brokerage earlier this year, sources said.

    CITIC Securities isn’t currently pursuing a sale, in part because executives didn’t think they would get an attractive price, according to the sources. Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed CITIC Securities didn’t want to sell CLSA at a loss, the sources said.