Accelerating SOE Reform: Strategic Restructuring and Specialized Integration Take Hold

A New Round of State-Owned Asset and Enterprise Reform Fully Launched: Strategic Restructuring and Specialized Integration Enter an Acceleration Phase

With the official release of the Plan for Further Deepening State-Owned Asset and Enterprise Reform (2026–2029), a systematic reform spanning central and local levels—and penetrating from top-level design down to grassroots implementation—has substantively commenced. This plan is not a mere extension of previous reforms; rather, it represents a strategic repositioning aligned with the critical opening years of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan and the pivotal window for cultivating “new-quality productive forces.” Its core logic is undergoing a profound shift—from “managing assets” toward “managing capital plus managing industries.” Strategic restructuring and specialized integration serve as dual engines driving an accelerated reconfiguration of the layout, structure, and value-realization pathways of the state-owned economy.

Central–Local Synergy: Reform Deployment Exhibits Unprecedented Political Salience and Operational Rigor

From its very inception, the plan has demonstrated unprecedented organizational intensity and execution density. Since May, more than ten provincial Party Standing Committees—including those of Shandong, Henan, and Hubei—have held special meetings to deliberate their respective provincial implementation plans. At the grassroots level, entities such as Yuxi High-Tech Zone (Yunnan), Pei County (Jiangsu), and Etoke Banner (Inner Mongolia) have swiftly organized study and dissemination sessions. This four-tier mobilization mechanism—linking provincial Party committees, prefecture-level cities, industrial parks, and counties—underscores how reform has been elevated to the status of the “No. 1 Project” for high-quality regional development. Particularly noteworthy is the “2026 Deepening Reform and World-Class Enterprise Building Conference” convened by China Electric Equipment Group on May 12. Not only was studying the reform plan designated the top priority, but the group also explicitly mandated the “development of a reform action ledger” and “systematic planning of subsidiary-level implementation initiatives”—marking a decisive transition for central SOEs from strategic awareness to tactical decomposition and accountability solidification. This closed-loop advancement model—comprising top-level design, mid-level transmission, and grassroots implementation—stands in stark contrast to the long-standing “hot at the top, lukewarm in the middle, cold at the bottom” dilemma observed in prior reforms, laying a robust organizational foundation for subsequent resource integration.

Valuation Reformation and Accelerated Securitiesization: Capital Markets Emerge as a Critical Interface for Reform

This round of reform places capital market functionality at an unprecedented strategic height. The plan explicitly calls for “accelerating the securitiesization of core assets,” directly linking this objective to structural revaluation of the A-share SOE Index and Central SOE ETFs. A telling example is MINIMAX-W Company’s announcement that it has signed a Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market) listing tutoring agreement and engaged professional advisors to conduct compliance assessments. Although the name “MINIMAX” evokes common AI-sector nomenclature, contextual clues and the broader SOE reform framework strongly suggest this entity is either a codename or a specific platform—such as a central SOE-controlled enterprise under the State-owned Capital Reform Demonstration Program. Its STAR Market push epitomizes the concurrent advancement of both the “Reform Demonstration Program” and the “Listing Tutoring Mechanism.” Such cases foreshadow that over the next three years, a cohort of high-potential SOE assets—concentrated in strategic national sectors including advanced equipment, energy infrastructure, and data elements—will accelerate their entry into capital markets via IPOs, spin-offs, and asset restructurings. This will not only enhance the liquidity and pricing efficiency of state-owned assets but also catalyze internal institutional innovation by introducing market-oriented governance mechanisms—establishing a virtuous cycle of “listing → governance optimization → performance improvement → valuation uplift,” thereby fundamentally reversing the persistent “low-valuation trap” afflicting certain SOEs.

Strategic Emerging Industries as the Primary Arena for Cross-Level Integration

The plan identifies three key convergence domains: advanced equipment, energy infrastructure, and data elements. These are not arbitrary sectoral listings but precise strategic “positioning moves” grounded in national industrial chain security and future-industry architecture. In advanced equipment, China Electric Equipment Group’s reform mobilization signals strong intent—the group operates across UHV power transmission, smart grids, and rail transit equipment, urgently requiring dismantling of intra-group silos among subsidiaries to integrate R&D, manufacturing, and service along the entire value chain. Regarding energy infrastructure, the plan emphasizes the “new-type power system” and “integrated source-grid-load-storage development,” compelling cross-ownership and cross-administrative-level collaboration among central SOEs in electricity, oil & gas, and new energy—as well as local energy platforms—in areas such as energy storage technologies, hydrogen applications, and intelligent microgrids. In the data-element domain, policy dividends—including “data assets on balance sheets” and “authorized operation of public data”—are generating fresh integration imperatives. Local big-data groups possessing data governance capabilities and central SOE information firms with robust computing infrastructure (e.g., enterprises within China Electronics Technology Group or China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation) are poised to forge deep, symbiotic partnerships anchored in the triad of “data + computing power + application scenarios.” Such integration transcends traditional horizontal M&A—it is, at its core, about building “industrial communities” centered on technology roadmaps, standards setting, and ecosystem construction.

Convergence of Reform Momentum and Macroeconomic Conditions: A Historic Window of Opportunity

Current macroeconomic conditions provide a rare and favorable timing window for reform. Although the May Manufacturing PMI remained flat at the 50.0% threshold, the Large-Enterprise PMI rose to 51.1%, reflecting the notable resilience and anti-pressure capacity of leading SOEs. Meanwhile, the Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index rebounded to 50.1%, with particular strength in telecommunications and insurance—sectors exceeding 55% in business activity—confirming that the digital economy and modern services are emerging as new growth poles. This aligns precisely with the reform’s focus on “data elements” and “advanced services.” More crucially, Qiushi magazine recently published General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important article, “Forward-Looking Planning and Development of Future Industries,” which systematically expounds the coordinated development logic of frontier sectors—including quantum science and technology and bio-manufacturing—and underscores the principles of “industry posing questions, science and technology providing answers” and the “new-type whole-nation system.” This injects a clear top-level methodology into SOE reform: SOEs must no longer be passive implementers but instead become “question-setters” and “organizers” of future industries—leveraging strategic restructuring to consolidate innovation resources and unblocking the full chain from “scientific discovery → technological breakthrough → industrial application.”

Medium- to Long-Term Structural Catalysts: From Sectoral Trading Themes to Paradigm Shift

In summary, the capital market impact of this reform extends far beyond short-term thematic speculation. It will sustainably unlock medium- to long-term value through three primary channels:

1. Enhanced quality of SOE Index constituents, with rising representation of SOEs exhibiting high ROE, high dividend payout ratios, and high R&D intensity (“the Three Highs”);
2. Strategic reallocation of underlying assets in Central SOE ETFs toward strategic emerging industries—strengthening alignment between financial instruments and national strategy;
3. Sustained policy-resource inflows and order support for thematic sectors including data elements, energy infrastructure, and advanced equipment.

More profoundly, as reform evolves from “physical integration” to “chemical synergy,” and SOEs truly become core carriers of new-quality productive forces, their valuation anchors will gradually shift away from conventional P/B and P/E frameworks—toward new dimensions such as “depth of technological barriers,” “breadth of ecosystem control,” and “precision of future-industry positioning.” This is not merely a process of market repricing—it marks a profound paradigm shift in China’s modern industrial system construction.