China's third state-owned assets management company will be launched sometime around the National Day Holiday period in a bid to speed up restructuring of the country's state-owned assets and trim the number of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the China Times reported Saturday, citing an unnamed source.

The new company, Guoxin Asset Management Co, will be funded by a special State-owned assets management budget and dividends paid by central SOEs last year, according to the paper. The source from the State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) also said that the commission plans to raise the ratio of the dividends paid from central SOEs' profits by 5 to 10 percentage points.

A former Baosteel general manager and president, Xie Qihua, will preside over Guoxin, and Liu Dongsheng, a former director general of SASAC's Bureau of Enterprise Reform, will act as Guoxin's general manager and Party secretary, the source said.

State-owned China International Intellectech Corp will support Guoxin in terms of human resources, the source told the paper. China Huaxing Group, which is experienced in company restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, will also be absorbed by the new company, according to the paper.

Nicknamed the second China Investment Corporation (CIC), Guoxin is to manage State-owned assets in the industrial sector with a role similar to that of CIC's domestic investment arm Central Huijin, which invests in the country's major State-owned financial firms.

There are currently 123 central SOEs in China, and the SASAC plans to cut the number to 100 by the end of this year. China's central SOEs reported profits of 723.55 billion yuan (US$107.83 billion) in the first eight months of this year, up 50 percent year-on-year, according to the SASAC.

The National Day Holiday will last from Oct 1 to Oct 7 this year.

(chinadaily.com.cn September 26, 2010)