Gov't Had Reservations about Selling Stake in Citic Ltd. to Foreigners

(Beijing and Hong Kong) – The Ministry of Finance had reservations about selling one-fifth of Citic Ltd.'s shares to foreign investors in a US$ 10 billion deal that marks the biggest foreign investment ever in a state-owned enterprise (SOE), a source from Citic said.

The Hong Kong-listed SOE said on January 20 that Chia Tai Bright Investment Co. Ltd. – a joint-venture owned by Japanese trading house Itochu Corp. and Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) – would take a 20 percent stake in the company with a two-part transaction that would involve HK$ 80 billion.