"China Shenhua Group Co., Ltd." was approved on September 17 to change its name to "China Energy Investment Corporation Limited"; the name of the enterprise group formed by the core enterprises was changed to "China Energy Investment Group"; and the group's short name was set as "China Energy Group".
Review of Important Timelines
On June 4, China Shenhua Energy Company Limited (China Shenhua) and GD Power Development Company Limited (GD Power Development Company) both suspended trading, announcing that they were planning significant matters involving the companies. "The company received a notice on June 2, 2017, from its controlling shareholder, China Guodian Corporation, stating that it was planning significant matters involving the company. This matter had major uncertainties and still required approval from relevant authorities. Aside from the information disclosed above, the company had no other information that should have been disclosed but was not."
Around late June, both companies separately announced their 2016 annual dividend distribution plans. China Shenhua and GD Power Development Company simultaneously announced their 2016 annual dividend distribution plans. GD Power Development Company's 2016 annual equity distribution plan was: a cash dividend of RMB 0.11 per A-share (tax inclusive), distributed on July 4; China Shenhua's 2016 annual equity distribution plan was: a cash dividend of RMB 0.460 per share (pre-tax), distributed on July 10.
On the evening of July 3, both companies simultaneously announced the continuation of their trading suspension. "The transaction counterparty is a large state-owned enterprise in the energy sector, and the transaction involves energy sector assets. In response to recent media reports about the restructuring, the company stated that the scope of the restructured assets had not yet been finalized, and the transaction method was still under discussion and evaluation. The company's shares would remain suspended until August 4."
On August 2, at the Low-Carbon Emission Reduction Forum of the 11th China New Energy International Summit Forum, Guan Weizhu, Director of the Safety Production Department of China Guodian Corporation, publicly stated that the merger plan for China Guodian Corporation and China Shenhua Group had been submitted to the State Council, and the new group's provisional name was China Energy Investment Group. After the merger, the new company's total assets would exceed 1.8 trillion yuan, with a debt-to-asset ratio of over 60%.
On the afternoon of August 28, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) announced that, with the approval of the State Council, China Guodian Corporation, the controlling shareholder of GD Power Development Company, and China Shenhua Group Co., Ltd., the controlling shareholder of China Shenhua, would merge and reorganize into China Energy Investment Corporation Limited. With this, the number of central state-owned enterprises supervised by SASAC of the State Council decreased to 98.
According to the "Proposal on Establishing a Joint Venture Company" disclosed by Shenhua, the board of supervisors agreed that China Shenhua would contribute its directly or indirectly held equity and assets of relevant thermal power companies (equity in 15 thermal power companies and 3 thermal power branches) and GD Power Development Company would contribute its directly or indirectly held equity and assets of relevant thermal power companies (equity in 19 thermal power companies and 3 thermal power branches) to jointly establish a joint venture company, with GD Power Development Company holding the controlling stake in the joint venture. After the restructuring, China Energy Investment Corporation Limited's size ranked after PetroChina, State Grid, and Sinopec.
(Source: China Energy Association website)