Suning Commerce Group Co and Legend Holdings stand at No 1 and 2 on the top 500 of Chinese private enterprises in 2014 for a third consecutive year, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) revealed. Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group Co, an enterprise that focuses on textiles, garments and dyeing services, took the third spot, replacing Huawei Technologies. Overall, manufacturing enterprises dominated the list. Operating revenue of the top enterprise came in at CNY279.8 billion. “Chinese private enterprises have made an increasingly larger contribution to the economy with a growing effort in innovation and investment,” said Tan Lin, Secretary of the Federation’s Economic Department. Sun Lijian, Vice Dean of the School of Economics at Fudan University in Shanghai, said that most of the enterprises made the list by their own independent innovation. They braced for competition in the marketplace. The government should help to break the monopolies, open up the market and encourage competition to let private enterprises speed up innovation, Sun said.

China set up its first national-level private investment company China Minsheng Investment, with total registered capital of CNY50 billion in Shanghai. The company, funded by 59 private Chinese companies, was approved by the Chinese government in April. Minsheng Investment will be engaged in equity investments, investment management, business consulting and providing financial advice, said Dong Wenbiao, Chairman of the company. “Minsheng Investment will firstly focus on the solar energy industry as well as establish a ship investment fund,” said Dong, former Chairman of China Minsheng Banking Corp. It also plans to build a complete industry chain to service the rapidly developing domestic business jet industry. The company also plans to enter new emerging industries like new energy, high technology and environmental protection. Dong said the 59 shareholders are all large private companies with combined total assets of nearly CNY1 trillion.

Shanghai-based Fosun International has stepped up its investment in the global insurance industry with the announcement that it is acquiring a 20% stake in Ironshore for about USD463.83 million. Ironshore provides broker-sourced commercial property and casualty coverage through platforms in countries including Australia, Canada and Singapore. Fosun Chairman Guo Guangchang said the deal would further expand the group’s insurance business.

PetroChina is reviewing its multi-billion-dollar push to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) in place of diesel, shutting two loss making gas liquefaction plants operated by subsidiary Kunlun Energy. LNG is cleaner and nearly a third cheaper than diesel. Kunlun, a relative latecomer, emerged as a leader of the business, having spent billions of dollars on a dozen LNG plants, mainly in the country’s west and north, and building over 600 gas refueling stations. It also operates two multi-billion-dollar LNG import terminals on China’s east coast. But since the second half of 2013, Kunlun has seen utilization rates at some of its plants fall below 50%, amid a broad economic slowdown and as Beijing rolled out a gas price reform that pushed up prices of feed gas. An anti-corruption probe of top PetroChina executives, including Kunlun’s former Chairman Li Hualin, added to uncertainty about the company’s business strategy.

The growth of China’s real estate investment continued to slow in July, latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. Property investment rose 13.7% year-on-year in the first seven months to CNY5.04 trillion, 0.4 percentage points down from the first half of this year. The investment in residential properties, which accounted for 68.2% of the total, rose 13.3% year-on-year, compared with a 13.7% growth for the first six months of 2014. The slower growth accompanied a faster fall in area and volume of property sales. In the first seven months, 564.8 million square meters were sold, down 7.6% year-on-year. The drop was 1.6 percentage points steeper than the decline seen in the first half of the year. Property sales volume fell 8.2% on year during this period, compared with a drop of 6.7% in the January-June period. China’s property sector has been cooling since the start of the year, with the growth of key indicators such as property investment slowing for six straight months.