Central-level state firms down to 155

Two recent mergers have caused the number of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) affiliated with the
central government to drop from 157 to 155, in line with a government drive to restructure and streamline the companies. China Travel Service (CTS) (Holdings) Corp was merged into CTS (Holdings) Hong Kong Ltd, while China Textile Industrial Engineering Institute became a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, according to an announcement by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) on Friday, Shanghai Securities News reported (in Chinese). The assets regulator, set up in 2003, when there were 196 major SOEs, has cut the number of major SOEs by promoting mergers and acquisitions and allowing poorly performing state firms to go bankrupt.