The number of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) affiliated to the central government, or the country's central SOEs, has decreased from 166 to 165 with a latest merger between two companies.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) last Friday announced the China Chengtong Holding Corporation has ended its trusteeship of the China Huandao Group, saying Huandao has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chengtong. 

Shao Ning, Vice Chairman of the SASAC, said that as the first successful trusteeship case under the SASAC, the merger of Huandao into Chengtong marks a successful asset operation of the central SOEs.

Insiders said that to enhance the total profits of China's central SOEs, the SASAC will endeavor to make structural adjustment by closing losing enterprises and converging state assets to key sectors or enterprises with good profits.

Once an enterprise directly affiliated to the Ministry of Public Security, Huandao was put under the administration of the SASAC in 1999 after integrating with some other enterprises.

By the end of 2004, Huandao had reported losses of 303 million yuan (US$37.875 million) and the SASAC decided last August to put it in the trust of Chengtong, an SOE in logistics.

According to statistics released by the SASAC, 11 central SOEs suffered a total of 2.52 billion yuan (US$315 million) losses in the first six months of this year, 470 million yuan more than the same period of last year.

Editor: Yan