China coal firms in 1.82t yuan merger talks

Hong Kong

SHENHUA Group Corp, China's biggest coal miner, and China Guodian Corp, one of the nation's largest coal-fired power generators, are in merger discussions, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The talks are preliminary and the merger may not go ahead, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn't public. The Hong Kong-listed units of the state-owned giants said on Sunday they were notified by their parent companies of "significant" matters, while subsidiaries in Shanghai requested trading halts. Neither parent, which have combined assets of almost 1.82 trillion yuan (S$369.5 billion), responded to requests for comment.