Top Biz News

Dutch purchase draws investors to CIMC

By Jianguo Jiang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-12-09 09:47

China International Marine Containers Co shares surged on Friday after the firm, the world's largest maker of freight containers, said it would buy the Netherlands' Burg Industries BV for 108 million euros (US$144 million) under a deal modified to address anti-trust concerns.

China International Marine, seeking to expand in Europe and extend its product range, will buy Burg's trailer and truck bodies as well as its storage tank manufacturing business, the Chinese company said.

The cargo box maker, also known as CIMC, won't acquire Burg's tank container business, according to Yu Yuqun, a spokesman for the Shenzhen-based company. In July, CIMC dropped plans to purchase Burg after European regulators expressed concerns over the merger of the two companies' tank-container businesses and extended the deal's review.

"This way the deal will be cleared," said Nancy Wang, an analyst at KGI Asia Ltd in Shanghai. "Burg's technology and market will help China International Marine expand around the world."

The European Union's anti-trust regulator in March said the acquisition as originally planned would create "a quasi-monopolistic market position" because it would have combined the two largest makers of tank containers.