China to create world's biggest power company

Tokyo

CHINA'S move to create the world's biggest power company is expected to be the first such government-managed mega-merger by the largest energy consumer.

The newly created China Energy Investment Corp - a combination of Shenhua Group Corp, the nation's largest coal miner, and China Guodian Corp, one of its top-five power generators - may be the first of multiple consolidations, which Wood Mackenzie Ltd estimated would include almost US$1 trillion in assets. "The Shenhua-Guodian merger is just the beginning of a wave of massive consolidations in China's energy sector," said Frank Yu, a Beijing-based analyst at Wood Mackenzie. "The landscape of major power utilities could be fundamentally reshuffled."