Belle mulls proposal to privatize

Once leading women's shoe maker facing sluggish business

Belle International Holdings Ltd - the former No 1 women's shoemaker in the Chinese mainland - is looking at going private, a decade after its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, due to the sluggish footwear business.

A consortium made up of Hillhouse Capital, CDH Investments, and Belle directors Yu Wu and Sheng Fang, announced last week that the shoemaker's board put forward a proposal which, if approved and implemented, will result in Belle's privatization.