SDIC plans overseas business strategy

As many State-owned enterprises struggled during last year's economic slowdown, State Development and Investment Corp saw double-digit profit growth and now plans to expand its overseas businesses, according to its chairman.

During the first 11 months of 2012, the company's profits grew 16 percent year-on-year, while overall profits of SOEs were flat in the same period, Wang Huisheng said.

As China's major investment holding company, SDIC has a business structure and investment strategy that are keys to realizing stable profits, Wang said.

He said the company is still in the early stages of its internationalization process, and it plans to raise its overseas investment share to 10 percent in the near future as it increases its overseas businesses.

At present, SDIC's major overseas business is fuel-tank manufacturing, which it began in 2007.

Its subsidiary, YAPP Automotive Parts Co Ltd, established a joint venture with Indian company Zoom Developer Pvt Ltd in 2007, producing auto fuel tanks for many world brands.

The company has about half of the domestic fuel-tank market share. It has factories in India, Australia, Russia and the Czech Republic, Wang said.

The company became Asia's largest and the world's fourth-biggest plastic fuel-tank producer in 2011, reaching sales of 4.4 million tanks a year.

SDIC's major investment lies in the power industry, especially hydropower generation, which accounted for about a third of its total investment.

The company plans to build 21 hydropower plants on Yalongjiang River in southwestern China. At present, two power plants - Guandi and Jinping in Sichuan province - have been completed and are generating power.

By the end of 2015, the company's installed hydropower generation capacity is expected to reach 14.7 million kilowatts. It targets at building a total generation capacity of 30 million kW by 2025.

China's top five power generation companies suffered huge losses in 2011 because of rising coal prices.

"We survived the crisis in the power-generation industry thanks to our diversified-investments strategy," Wang said.

The company also has coal-fired power plants in addition to its hydropower plants. The investments in both sectors have helped the company reduce its risks, industrial analysts said.

About half of the company's assets are currently within the power industry, but its share will gradually decrease as the company invests in more fields, Wang said.

The company plans to spend 30 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) in shale gas exploration, cooperating with Chongqing municipal government.

dujuan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/23/2013 page16)