Chinese companies at a glance

Telecom merger

China Netcom Group Corp (Hong Kong) Ltd was fully incorporated into China Unicom Ltd recently, creating the new China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited.

Netcom's shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and its American Depositary Shares on the New York Stock Exchange were delisted.

The merger marked the end of the country's telecom restructuring in the capital market since numerous ministries jointly decided in May to reorganize the telecom industry.

The deal involved a share swap of 1.508 new Unicom shares for every Netcom share, and 3.016 new Unicom American Depositary Shares (ADS) for every Netcom ADS, according to the August agreement by the two companies.

The merger was also the country's biggest, as the trade value stood at $24 billion.

Asset restructure

Beijing Raycom Real Estate Development Co Ltd, which will be the third listed company in Legend Holdings Ltd, will complete asset restructuring by the end of this year.

The company expects to meet the IPO requirements in 2010, says Raycom CEO Zheng Zhigang.

Three Legend Holdings real estate projects in Shenzhen, Beijing and Tianjin, worth about 60 billion yuan, went on auction in Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange (SUAEE) recently.

The company is not selling the assets but to inject them to Raycom through the auction in SUAEE to realize its IPO as a whole, says Zheng Zhigang

Legend Holdings Ltd will sell Shenzhen Raycom and Tianjin Lihe's 90 percent stake for nearly 440 billion yuan and 126.6 billion yuan respectively, and Beijing Wangdu Real Estate's 1.5 percent shares for 4.15 million yuan.

Insurance index renewed

Heng An Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd, together with Nankai University, launched a renewed life insurance index 2008 after it introduced the industry's first barometer last year.

The index will help to better reflect the insurance market trend and customers' real demand.

This year's survey showed that the residents in China's villages and towns get an even higher score in terms of insurance knowledge than their urban counterparts.

The reason, experts say, lie with an even poorer protection plans in rural areas and residents' lower income.

Meanwhile, people with family income ranging from 40,000 yuan to 250,000 yuan and with a graduate degree or above are the most willing to buy insurance policies. And those working at joint ventures, private firms, State-owned enterprises and colleges are more likely to buy policies.

The index, based on 6,500 samples, cover 12 cities and towns over the country.

Spacewalk coin package

China Gold Coin Inc (CGCI), the only professional company under the People's Bank of China dealing in gold and silver commemorative coins, has just distributed a set of gold and silver coins to commemorate the success of the country's maiden spacewalk.

The package of coins, launched by the central bank and produced by Shenyang Mint, comprising 30,000 gold coins, with a face value of 150 yuan each, and 60,000 silver coins, with a face value of 10 yuan each.

The head of each coin will have the solar system design while the tail will bear a color portrait of a taikonaut conducting a spacewalk and the Chinese words "To commemorate the success of China's first spacewalk".

The Shenzhou VII that carried the three astronauts flew 68 hours in space which included the 20-minute spacewalk.

Emerging sector

CITIC-Prudential Life Insurance is strengthening its exploitation into the sports insurance market as the emerging sector has huge growth potential.

The company has underwritten the China Open for two years in a row, with insurance coverage of up to 100 million yuan each year. Their insurance package covers public liability insurance, accident insurance for staff with the organizing committee and traffic accident insurance for spectators.

Sports insurance came into the Chinese spotlight after gymnast Sang Lan broke her spine at the Goodwill Games in New York in 1998. The medical insurance indemnity - worth as much as $10 million - provided by the Goodwill Games enabled her to get the best treatments and also let the Chinese know the importance of sports insurance.

However, China's sports insurance has made slow progress. Currently, the Chinese sports insurance is still largely limited to athletes' accident and death insurance.

(China Daily 10/27/2008 page7)