Nuclear power giants' merger cleared

China's efforts to streamline and restructure its State-owned enterprises gained further momentum on Wednesday after the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission cleared the proposed merger of China Nuclear Engineering and Construction and China National Nuclear Corp.

The merger between CNEC, China's sole nuclear power engineering firm and major nuclear power producer CNNC, is expected to create an entity with combined assets of more than 620 billion yuan ($99 billion) and a workforce of almost 150,000, according to Reuters' calculations.

Industry experts said that the State-orchestrated marriage in the nation's vast power sector comes as no surprise, as Beijing has been trying to streamline the SOE sector since 2015 to make businesses more profitable with mergers, reductions and shutting down of zombie companies.