Centrally-Owned Enterprises Submit Plans to Exit Real Estate Market

Web exclusive published on April 8
Translated by Wang Hao
Original article: [Chinese]

According to an official from China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), the agency that manages the country's centrally-controlled state-owned enterprises on behalf of the State Council, all 78 of the central-owned enterprises (COEs) required by a recent SASAC announcement to prepare reports on how they plan to exit the real estate market, had submitted their reports to SASAC before yesterday's deadline.

The official said, "we've already received most of the reports from the 78 COEs outlining their plans to exit the real estate market, but details about which assets will be involved and the method by which these businesses will exit the market, is still being studied."

On March 18, SASAC announced that "the pace of adjustment for COE groups with holdings in real estate enterprises will be accelerated and a strategy for how these companies will exit the market should be formulated within 15 working days."

Aside from the 16 COEs whose main business is connected to the real estate sector, the announcement applied to all of the remaining 78 COEs currently participating in the real estate industry.

Figures released by SASAC indicate a total of 227 real estate subsidiaries, ranked as being third tier or above - a measure that distinguishes the size of real estate developers according to the amount of capital invested and other measures - are owned by these 78 state-owned firms.

These 227 real estate companies account for 60 percent of all the real estate firms, ranked as being of third tier or above, owned or controlled by all centrally-controlled enterprises.

Links and Sources
The Economic Observer: 78家央企退出方案已基本上报国资委 (Chinese)