(Reuters) – Hong Kong’s CTF Services, part of the conglomerate owned by billionaire tycoon Henry Cheng and family, is in early talks with China’s state-owned Yuexiu Group to sell a bundle of toll roads worth $2 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
The construction firm, formerly known as NWS Holdings, has also held talks with other buyers and could sell the package of roads in smaller chunks, the report said, citing unnamed sources.
CTF Services and Yuexiu did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The potential sale is part of a strategic review of assets to raise cash and boost investor value, the Bloomberg report stated, and comes during an unfolding succession saga and mounting challenges for the Cheng family’s businesses.
CTF’s sister company, New World Development, clocked its first annual loss this year in two decades and has amassed more debt than its Hong Kong peers. Heir Adrian Cheng stepped down as the firm’s CEO in late September, while his replacement exited the company in just two months.
Shares of New World ended this year more than 57% in the red, while the family empire’s third listed entity, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, has lost 42% in value. In contrast, CTF Services’s stock has risen 31.7%.
(Reporting by Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
