A unit of Goldman Sachs has won regulatory approval from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) for its 2.57 billion yuan (US$325 million) acquisition of China's biggest meat processor, Shuanghui Group.

The State-owned assets supervision and administration commission of Luohe, in Central China's Henan Province, where Shuanghui is based, got permission to sell its 100 per cent stake in Shuanghui Group to Rotary Vortex Ltd, 51 per cent owned by Goldman Sachs, for 2.01 billion yuan (US$254 million).

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MOFCOM also approved Rotary Vortex's purchase of a 25 per cent stake in Shuanghui's listed arm Henan Shuanghui Investment and Development Co from Luohe Haiyu Investment Co, at a price of 562 million yuan (US$71 million), the Shenzhen-listed company said in a statement.

Rotary Vortex outbid JP Morgan's private equity arm CCMP in April, and the deal was approved by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) in August.

The acquisition, still to be approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, will turn the State-owned meat processor into a wholly foreign owned company.

Previously, such acquisition attempts have aroused concern that leading Chinese enterprises will continue falling into the hands of foreign investors and threaten the future of local industry.

But in late November, Guo Jingyi, deputy director of MOFCOM's department of treaty and law, said "the relationship between the acquisition of the meat-processing firm and economic safety isn't great," accordingh to a report in the China Economic Times.

Shuanghui shares have been suspended since May 31, when they closed at 31.17 yuan (US$3.95), double the price at the beginning of this year.

"It is likely that Shuanghui Group will inject all its meat-related assets into the listed firm," said Dong Junfeng, an analyst from Galaxy Securities. The performance of the firm's stock is likely to grow by a big margin, he said.

According to Dong, Shuanghui accounts for less than 5 per cent of China's fragmented meat produce market. But it holds more than 40 per cent of the country's high-temperature processing meat products market.

(China Daily 12/12/2006 page10)

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