The state agency which oversees China Resources (Holdings) has deep reservations about the company’s behaviour in the high-stakes battle for control of China Vanke, the country’s largest homebuilder, a source at the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) said.
Meanwhile, a source at the China Securities Regulatory Commission said China Resources and Baoneng Group – the two largest shareholders of Vanke – would be punished and their shareholder rights restricted if they were found to have illegally acted in concert.
China Resources last week broke its silence over the saga by joining Baoneng in blocking a restructuring plan proposed by Vanke’s management team, more than six months after it had stayed out of the fight between Vanke’s management team and Baoneng, a financial conglomerate.
“China Resources has been watching the developments and looking for a solution best to its interest,” said Liu Feifan, a property analyst with Guotai Junan Securities. “Now, it looks like it wants to reclaim its status as the biggest shareholder.”
The tricky issue is “how big” China Resources wants to be.
Some analysts said the company might want to take over the stake owned by Baoneng, which would give it almost 40 per cent of the current equity of and a dominant say in Vanke.
