Top executives join Xi on his U.S. tour
The business delegation traveling with Chinese President Xi Jinping on his highly anticipated visit to the U.S. represents the most successful models in a number of the country's fast-growing industries, experts said on Wednesday. [Special coverage]
The delegation includes executives from 15 top Chinese companies that jointly reported 3.15 trillion yuan ($494 billion) in business revenues for 2014, equivalent to 4.95 percent of the country's GDP that same year, according to a report published by news portal sina.com.cn Wednesday.
The delegation also covers a wide variety of industries such as the Internet, banking, food, construction, shipping, vehicles, manufacturing, chemicals, energy and household appliances. It includes well-known tycoons like Jack Ma Jun from Alibaba Group, Ma Huateng from Tencent Holdings, Robin Li Yanhong from Baidu Inc and Yang Yuanqing from technology firm Lenovo Group.
"China's emerging industries are on the rise, and the business delegation this time is meant to promote business communications between companies in both countries, especially in some advanced areas like the Internet or cloud computing," Huo Jianguo, former director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
"It would be a good opportunity for companies to exchange ideas on new business models and seek cooperation," Huo said.
The combined market value of the 15 top companies in China was around 5.69 trillion yuan based on their share prices as of Tuesday, close to 13 percent of the total A-share market capitalization, according to the report by Sina.
Four of these, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group, have each seen their valuations exceed 1 trillion yuan.
"All of the 15 companies are listed ones or at least have listed arms under their groups," Xu Gao, chief economist of China Everbright Securities, told the Global Times on Wednesday. "Experience shows that public companies, with more transparent information disclosure, could help ease doubts over a company's expansion in a foreign market."
All of the 15 companies have made substantial investments in the U.S., amounting to $20.6 billion in total, the Sina report said. The number is almost equivalent to 45 percent of the total investment made by Chinese companies in the U.S..
According to data from the National Committee on United States-China Relations, investment made by Chinese companies in the U.S. had reached $46 billion as of the end of 2014.
In 2013, Shuanghui Group acquired U.S. pork processor Smithfield Foods in a $7.1 billion deal, marking the largest Chinese takeover of a U.S. company so far.
