Two state-owned capital acquisition deals were closed within a single day, and local authorities across China are accelerating the reorganization of their internal affairs.

On the evening of September 8, two internal state-owned assets integration transactions occurred simultaneously in the A-share market.

The first transaction was that Yantai Moon Environment Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Moon Environment", 000811.SZ) under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Yantai, spent 703 million yuan to acquire 45% equity of Yantai Mingxiang Holding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yantai Mingxiang").

The second transaction was announced by Zhuhai China Duty Free Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhuhai Duty Free Group", 600185.SH) under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Zhuhai, stating that Zhuhai Kangge Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Kangge Investment"), a subsidiary of Zhuhai Gree Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Gree Group"), took over 96.28% equity of Zhuhai Investment Holding Co., Ltd. (Haitou Company) from Zhuhai Huafa Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huafa Group") for 4.527 billion yuan.

Two cities, two unrelated companies, two seemingly irrelevant transactions, but they share one common feature: both the buyer and the seller belong to the same state-owned assets system. After the transaction, the actual controller of the assets remains unchanged.

Behind this type of state-owned assets integration transaction is a systematic move of local state-owned assets accelerating the internal structural reorganization.

01

Yantai State-owned Assets: Compressors Need Seals

Moon Environment, located in Yantai, is mainly engaged in refrigeration compressors. Its core equipment for huge refrigeration systems ranging from food cold chains to petrochemical, energy and ice and snow venues are all produced in its factories. In the first half of 2026, the company achieved operating revenue of 3.678 billion yuan and net profit of 311 million yuan, with both year-on-year growth rates exceeding 17%. Listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange for more than 20 years, it is a landmark enterprise of Yantai state-owned assets in the field of high-end equipment manufacturing.

Yantai Mingxiang holds a key asset: it is the controlling shareholder of Sealing Technology (301020.SZ), holding 47.93% equity of this GEM-listed company.

Sealing Technology, listed in 2021, produces mechanical seals - key components in industrial equipment that prevent fluid leakage, and compressors happen to be one of the largest downstream application scenarios for seals.

In other words, the equipment manufactured by Moon Environment and the products produced by Sealing Technology are naturally upstream and downstream in the industrial chain.

What is more interesting is that the predecessor of Mingxiang Holding was named "Yantai Moon Sealing Products Co., Ltd.". This sealing business was once part of the Moon Environment system, and was later spun off and held solely by Guofeng Investment and Hehong Investment. Now, Moon Environment intends to bring this business back by acquiring the equity of Mingxiang.

The 703 million yuan paid is not only for the assets on the book. The book value of all equity interests of Mingxiang's parent company is only 55.31 million yuan, but the assessed value reaches 1.561 billion yuan. The core reason for this premium lies in the equity of Sealing Technology held by Mingxiang. Assessed by the income approach, the total equity value of Sealing Technology is about 3.213 billion yuan.

After the transaction is completed, Moon Environment and Guofeng Investment will hold 45% and 22% equity of Mingxiang respectively, totaling 67% to form control. Moon Environment thus indirectly controls Sealing Technology, and the latter will be included in the consolidated statements.

The subtlety of this transaction is that Moon Environment, at the cost of 703 million yuan, not only completes a vertical integration of the upstream and downstream industrial chain, but also indirectly obtains the controlling right of a GEM-listed company. According to the announcement of Moon Environment, as of May 8, 2026, the market value of Moon Environment is about 26 billion yuan, and the market value of Sealing Technology is about 3.4 billion yuan. Through this round of internal restructuring, Yantai state-owned assets has gained an additional operation fulcrum in the capital market, and the industrial logic has also been straightened out.

02

Zhuhai State-owned Assets: Two Giants Reorient Their Positions

If the key word of Yantai's restructuring is "industrial chain", the key word of Zhuhai's restructuring is "positioning return".

Gree Group taking over 96.28% equity of Haitou Company seems to be an asset transaction of 4.527 billion yuan on the surface, but behind it is the third step of Zhuhai state-owned assets' two-year layout.

The first step was taken at the end of 2024. Gree Real Estate spun off its real estate assets and injected 51% equity of Zhuhai China Duty Free Group Co., Ltd. In May 2025, the company was renamed Zhuhai China Duty Free Group Co., Ltd. (Zhuhai Duty Free Group, 600185.SH), completely leaving the real estate sector and turning to duty-free consumption. Zhuhai state-owned assets aimed to make the Gree system withdraw from real estate and enter the duty-free industry.

The second step was taken in May 2025. Zhuhai established a Science and Technology Industry Group with a registered capital of 50 billion yuan, 60% of which was held by Huafa and 40% by Gree. Scientific and technological innovation assets were centrally integrated into this group, and the main development directions of all entities under Zhuhai state-owned assets system began to differentiate: scientific and technological innovation and industrial investment belong to the science and technology group, urban development and operation belong to Huafa, and consumption and duty-free business belong to Gree.

The third step is the current move. 96.28% equity of Haitou Company was transferred from Huafa to Gree. The pricing basis of the transaction consideration is that the book attributable net assets of Haitou Company on the benchmark date (December 31, 2025) is about 4.702 billion yuan, and the consideration is priced at 4.527 billion yuan in proportion to 96.28%. According to the announcement of Zhuhai Duty Free Group, after the transaction is completed, Kangge Investment will indirectly hold 44.95% equity of Zhuhai Duty Free Group through Haitou Company, becoming the new indirect controlling shareholder. The controlling shareholder is still Haitou Company, and the actual controller is still the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Zhuhai.

23% equity of the Duty Free Group was also transferred at the same time. According to the previous announcement of Zhuhai Duty Free Group, the equity structure of the Duty Free Group is as follows: Zhuhai Duty Free Group holds 51%, Haitou Company holds 26%, and Zhuhai Urban Construction Group under Huafa holds 23%. This 23% equity held by Urban Construction Group is also transferred to the Gree system together. The controlling right of the listed company and the equity of the Duty Free Group itself are completely gathered into the same platform, which provides conditions for the follow-up unified planning of the long-term development of the duty-free business.

After the three steps are completed, all entities under Zhuhai state-owned assets have clear divisions of labor. Huafa continues to engage in urban development and operation, Gree focuses on duty-free consumption, and the Science and Technology Industry Group carries the scientific and technological innovation assets spun off from the two major groups. The giant platforms under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Zhuhai have finally taken their proper positions.

03

Not an Isolated Case

Looking back, the integration logic of state-owned assets in Yantai and Zhuhai is not completely the same. One starts from the industry, and the other starts from positioning. But the end result is the same: to let the more suitable entity in the system control the corresponding high-quality assets.

This phenomenon is not an isolated case in 2026.

In Sichuan, two trillion-level provincial state-owned platforms, Shudao Group and Sichuan Development, are carrying out asset replacement. Sichuan Road & Bridge acquired bridge component assets for 561 million yuan, while Xinzhu Co., Ltd. spun off maglev and bridge businesses and injected clean energy assets instead. According to Securities Times, the purpose is to eliminate horizontal competition between the two platforms and realize "one type of assets is aggregated to one operating entity". After the integration is completed, the five listed platforms under Shudao Group will each have a clear positioning: Sichuan Road & Bridge focuses on transportation infrastructure, Xinzhu Co., Ltd. transforms into clean energy, Chengyu Expressway Co., Ltd. focuses on expressway operation, Shudao Equipment focuses on high-end equipment, and Hongda Co., Ltd. focuses on phosphorus resources and non-ferrous metals.

In Pudong, Shanghai, Pudong Venture Capital Group and Pudong Sci-Tech Innovation Group merged on an equal footing. According to National Business Daily, after the merger, the scale of Pudong venture capital ecological fund has reached about 600 billion yuan, of which the active management scale is nearly 60 billion yuan, covering mother funds, industrial funds, angel funds, seed funds, S funds and so on.

In Guangxi, Tongsheng Leasing absorbed and merged Guangxi Leasing. According to Financial Times, one of them is engaged in auto finance and the other is engaged in infrastructure financial leasing. The purpose of the merger is to "reduce internal horizontal competition and concentrate capital and professional capabilities". In Tianjin, the state-owned assets system is also integrating relevant financial leasing enterprises. According to the news from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Tianjin, the goal is to build a municipal state-owned financial leasing enterprise with regional leading strength.

In Jining, 90.47% equity of Urban Investment Group was transferred free of charge to Jining Urban Digital Information Technology Co., Ltd. According to the approval document of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jining, the purpose is to promote the transformation of urban investment enterprises to the two-wheel drive of "urban investment + industrial investment".

These transactions are scattered all over the country, seemingly irrelevant, but they point to the same direction: aggregating one type of assets to one operating entity to reduce cross-overlapping and eliminate internal friction.

In more core cities, the aggregation effort is stronger. In August this year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Nanjing injected nearly 500 billion yuan of assets from Urban Construction Group, Transportation Group, Southeast Group and Innovation Investment Group into Nanjing State-owned Assets Group at one go, and indirectly controlled 6 listed companies including Nanjing High-tech, Nanjing Public Utilities, Bank of Nanjing and Nanjing Securities in one move. According to Securities Daily, Tian Lihui, a professor of finance at Nankai University, commented that this move aims to solve the pain points of "excessive number of platforms, redundant levels and homogeneous competition".

Shanghai's Transportion Development Co., Ltd. spun off 5 auto parts subsidiaries and exchanged for 100% equity of 4 subsidiaries under its controlling shareholder Jiushi Group, which are engaged in event operation, stadium operation, Huangpu River cruise and performance operation. On July 28, the company was directly renamed "Jiushi Sports & Entertainment". The listed company is no longer just the target of integration, but has become the carrier of integration itself.

Guangzhou has also taken similar actions. Lingnan Holdings is planning to acquire 85% equity of Guangzhou Radio & TV City Service from Digital Technology Group, which also belongs to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Guangzhou. According to Shanghai Securities News, Digital Technology Group will spin off offline comprehensive service assets and concentrate resources to develop digital technology through this transaction, while Lingnan Holdings will integrate urban services into its large tourism platform.

Moreover, it is not only local governments that are taking actions. According to statistics from Shanghai Securities News, in 2026, more than 10 cases of free transfer of equity of listed companies controlled by central SOEs have been disclosed, with almost consistent direction: compressing property rights levels. The controlling shareholder of Huadian New Energy was moved up from Huadian Furui, a tertiary subsidiary, to its parent company China Huadian Corporation; the controlling shareholder of COSCO Shipping Holdings was changed from COSCO Corporation to COSCO Shipping Holdings holding shares directly; Baowu Magnesium Industry was moved up from Baosteel Metal to China Baowu; Times New Material Technology was moved up from CRRC Zhuzhou Institute to CRRC Group.

The purpose of the transaction is very clear: to shorten the management level and make the control more direct.

Putting all these together, the law of state-owned assets integration in 2026 is already very clear, which is also a systematic transformation of the state-owned assets management mode. The eight characters of "core business return and asset aggregation" written by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Guangzhou in the "2025 Work Summary and 2026 Work Arrangement of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Guangzhou" may be the most accurate summary of this wave of moves. One type of assets can only be managed by one entity, and scattered assets are not allowed; the management level should be shortened to the minimum possible; listed companies should change from pawns to operation fulcrums.

04

Why Now?

Why do these "internal affairs" reorganizations of state-owned assets occur intensively from 2025 to 2026? There may be three driving forces behind it.

The first driving force is the pressure of the countdown. According to the requirements of relevant policy documents, financing platforms need to achieve 100% withdrawal by the end of June 2027. Local governments must sort out their assets and compress the number of platforms before that. Integration and restructuring are the most direct means: gather scattered assets, merge duplicate platforms, and fully withdraw from the businesses that should be withdrawn.

The second driving force is the urgency of solving horizontal competition. Many cities have formed a large number of state-owned platforms with overlapping businesses in history, and the same type of assets are scattered in different entities. Take Zhuhai as an example, duty-free assets are not only held by Haitou Company, but also scattered in Urban Construction Group, and indirectly held through Zhuhai Duty Free Group. Homogeneous competition and internal friction have reached the point that must be resolved.

The third driving force is the change of mindset. In the past few years, the main way for state-owned assets to expand was external acquisition - buying listed companies, buying assets and buying controlling rights. Now, more and more local governments have realized that instead of spending a lot of money buying from outside, it is better to sort out their own assets first. Through internal integration, injecting high-quality assets into listed companies and straightening out the shareholding relationship, the cost is lower, the risk is smaller, and the effect is faster.

Epilogue

The sorting out of equity relationship is only the first step.

Just as there is a sentence in the reform document of Sichuan state-owned assets that is very appropriate here: enterprises participating in the restructuring need to move from the simple "physical integration" of assets to the "chemical fusion" of business, management and resource coordination.

Straightening out the structure itself is not difficult. What is difficult is whether each asset can generate greater value than before in its new position after the structure is sorted out.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Chen Shao M&A" (ID: MW-Group), written by Chen Mo, and authorized by 36Kr for release.