On Wednesday, Chinese state-owned conglomerate Citic Group announced details of its plans to inject its assets into a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary. The subsidiary, Citic Pacific Ltd., will pay its parent roughly $36 billion, to buy Citic Group's main operating subsidiary, Citic Ltd. Citic Pacific will pay for 78% of the deal in stock issued to its parent, and the rest in cash from a share placement to institutional investors. The end result, if all goes well, will be a Hong Kong-listed company holding 99% of the state-owned behemoth's assets.

周三，中国国有企业中信集团公司(Citic Group Inc., 简称：中信集团)公布了向香港上市子公司中信泰富有限公司(CITIC Pacific Ltd. 简称：中信泰富)注入资产的方案细节。中信泰富将向母公司中信集团支付大约360亿美元，用于收购中信集团的主要业务子公司中国中信股份有限公司(CITIC Ltd., 简称：中信股份)。中信泰富将通过向母公司发行股份的方式支付其中78%的交易对价，其余部分将用面向机构投资者配售股份所筹的现金支付。如果一切顺利，最终结果将是中信泰富持有中信集团99%的资产。

Chang Zhenming, Chairman of Citic Group and subsidiaries including Citic Pacific and Citic Limited, argued at press conference in Hong Kong yesterday that the deal represents a major step in Chinese reform of state-owned companies. Granted, the deal would place the assets and governance of a premier state conglomerate under the more mature regulatory scrutiny of Hong Kong, and realize a government goal of 'mixed ownership' of state assets--that is, bringing private investors in to state owned companies.

同时担任中信集团以及中信泰富和中信股份等子公司董事长的常振明昨日在香港的新闻发布会上表示，上述交易是中国国有企业改革的重大一步。的确，这笔交易将把一个国有企业集团的资产和管理置于更加成熟的香港监管之下，并且实现了政府提出的发展“混合所有制”经济的目标。所谓发展“混合所有制”经济就是把私人投资者引入国有企业。

But is that really reform? Journalists at the briefing weren't letting Mr. Chang off that easily. Here's a summary of some of the questions asked, and Mr. Chang's responses:

但这是真正的改革吗？参加此次新闻发布会的记者们并没有让常振明轻松过关。以下是发布会上记者提问与常振明回答的概要：

-State-owned companies have injected assets into Hong Kong subsidiaries before, and there are other state-owned enterprises based in Hong Kong now. How is this different or innovative?

问：中国国有企业以前就曾向香港子公司注入过资产，而且目前已有其他国有企业把总部设在香港。中信集团此举有何不同？或者说创新之处？

'For a single company to put essentially all of its assets in another company in one go and come to Hong Kong, [is unusual.] I think this hasn't happened before.'

答：对单个公司来说，一次性地把几乎所有资产都放到另一家公司并迁到香港，这是非同寻常的。我认为以前从未有过这种情况。

-Why inject assets? Why not just list Citic Group in a new Hong Kong IPO?

问：为什么要注入资产？中信集团为什么不直接在香港进行新的首次公开募股(IPO)？

'There are already a lot of listed companies under Citic. If Citic Group did a separate IPO in Hong Kong, it would be very confusing for shareholders.'

答：中信集团旗下已有很多上市公司，如果中信集团在香港单独进行IPO，会让股东感到非常困惑。

-Since Citic is bringing in new investors, will it be welcoming some of them to its board?

问：既然中信将引入新的投资者，那么是否欢迎其中的一些投资者进入公司董事会？

'The future composition of the board is yet to be determined... But bringing in foreign investors to the board has no direct connection to corporate governance. Having foreign directors won't necessarily improve governance.'

答：公司董事会的未来构成尚未确定，但引入外国投资者进入董事会与公司治理没有直接关系。引入外国董事不一定能改善公司治理。

-Is Citic Group making this move to cover debts, perhaps related to Citic Pacific's long-delayed nearly $10 billion Australian iron ore mining project, most of which has yet to come online and is more than three times over its initial budget?

问：中信集团此举是不是为了偿还债务？是否与中信泰富推迟已久的耗资近100亿美元的澳大利亚铁矿石项目有关？该项目的大部分仍未投入运营，而且投入资金已经是最初预算的三倍多。

'Everyone has felt that this has been a heavy project for Citic Pacific, like a small horse pulling a big cart,' Mr. Chang said, noting that nobody at Citic expected the project to encounter so many problems. However, Mr. Chang stressed that Citic Group's gearing ratio overall is very low.

答：所有人都感到这对中信泰富来说是一个沉重的项目，就像一匹小马拉了一辆大车。他说，中信此前并没有预料到该项目会遇到这么多问题。但常振明强调，目前中信集团的总体杠杆比率非常低。