Vanke White Knight Gets Shenzhen's Support, Big Stakeholder's Scorn

(Shenzhen/Beijing) – A white knight rescue plan by a company closely tied to the hometown government of leading home builder China Vanke Co. is drawing cries of protest over lowball pricing and an invalid board vote from one of its other major shareholders, heating up one of China's liveliest hostile takeover battles of all time.

State-owned China Resources (Holdings) Co., which owns 15.29 percent of Vanke, has refused to accept a decision by Vanke's board last week that would make Shenzhen Metro Group Co. the company's biggest shareholder through a swap of new Vanke shares in exchange for land. China Resources has questioned the validity of the decision, as well as the plan's commercial value.