SOEs scramble to sell assets

Firms hope to avoid delisting by offsetting annual losses

A number of large State-owned enterprises facing heavy losses are rushing to sell assets to make up for their deficits and avoid getting delisted from the stock market as the end of the year approaches.

However, analysts said that the moves may not be enough to reverse the long-term downturn faced by SOEs in sunset industries, as the companies are also being asked to give up larger shares of their profits and their scale is likely to shrink further.