Sinochem International : China approves long-planned merger of Sinochem and ChemChina

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's State Council, the country's cabinet, has approved a long proposed merger of Sinochem Group and China National Chemical Corp, or ChemChina, the Chinese state assets regulator said on Wednesday.

The complex merger, which has been under discussion since at least 2017, would create the world's biggest industrial chemicals firm.

In a brief statement on its website, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac), under the State Council, said Sinochem and ChemChina would implement a "joint reorganisation."

Since 2018, both state-owned companies have been chaired by Ning Gaoning, who the following year insisted the merger was still on https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sinochem-chemchina-merger-idUSKBN1XG151 after reports China planned to abandon it due to challenges in bringing the management teams together.

In early 2020, Sinochem and ChemChina opted to consolidate their agricultural assets into a new holding company, ChemChina unit Syngenta said.

(Reporting by Colin Qian and Tom Daly, editing by Louise Heavens and Bernadette Baum)