Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is tipping state-owned multi-business conglomerates as solid, future long-term bets. Based on a study of 380 listed Chinese conglomerates, or their listed subsidiaries, the firm found state-owned conglomerates’ total shareholder returns (TSR) over a ten-year period (2006-15) actually beat their western and Japanese counterparts. TSR combines share price appreciation and dividends paid to show the total return to shareholders expressed as an annualized percentage. BCG measured relative TSR, that divides benchmark returns, to measure how stocks outperform or underperform the overall market. The result is that Chinese conglomerates’ relative TSR registered a median 3.4%, beating the U.S.’s 0.6%, the UK’s 3%, and Japan’s -1.7%, which BCG attributed to China’s overall strong economic growth and corporate revenue expansion in the past decade. BCG then examined how performance varies across different ownership. And contrary to public perception, state-owned conglomerates generally outperformed private ones, it said. Multi-business state-owned conglomerates such as Cofco Group, China Merchants Group and China Resources beat all other types, BCG said.