Guangdong Holdings

The predecessor of Guangdong Holdings, was a company incorporated on 3 June 1980 as Guangdong Enterprises Limited (Chinese: 粤海企业有限公司), a company incorporated in Hong Kong, as a "window company" of the mainland China (more precisely, the Guangdong Province) to trade with the outside world. In 1985 Guangdong Enterprises was renamed to Guangdong Enterprises (Holdings) Limited (Chinese: 粤海企业(集团)有限公司). In 1988 Guangdong Enterprises acquired a listed company (SEHK: 270) as a special purpose vehicle that Guangdong Enterprises backdoor listing its assets.

The group suffered as a result of the 1997 Asian financial crisis; in 1999 a debt restructuring plan was agreed.[2] The group received more assets from Guangdong Government as capital injection, most notably Dongshen Water Supply Project,[3] an infrastructure that supply water from the upper stream of Dong River to Hong Kong via Shenzhen. More specifically, listed subsidiary Guangdong Investment acquired 81% stake of Cayman Islands incorporated "GH Water Supply (Holdings) Limited" in December 1999, the parent company of Dongshen Water Supply Project from Guangdong Government in an all-share deal (increased from 38.90% at 31 December 1999 to 55.49% at 31 December 2000), plus the government paid Guangdong Investment US$20 million.[4][5][6] The agreed maximum volume of water that Hong Kong would buy in 1999 was 770 million cubic metre (actual supplied 738 million m³)[7] In 1999 the agreed price was HK$3.085/m³.[8]

On 10 December 1999 a new holding company for the group's overseas subsidiaries was incorporated in Hong Kong as GDH Limited (Chinese: 广东控股; lit. 'Guangdong Holdings'). The Chinese name of GDH Limited was renamed on 8 July 2006 (Chinese: 粤海控股集团; lit. 'Guangdong Overseas Holding Group').

The ultimate holding company, Guangdong Yue Gang Investment Holdings (Chinese: 广东粤港投资控股; lit. 'Guangdong Guangdong-Hongkong Investment Holdings Co., Ltd.') was incorporated in the mainland China on 31 January 2000. The company was later renamed to Guangdong Holdings Limited (Chinese: 广东粤海控股; lit. 'Guangdong Guangdong Overseas Holding') . In 2015 the Chinese name of the company was added the word "group" (Chinese: 广东粤海控股集团; lit. 'Guangdong Guangdong Overseas Holding Group'), making Guangdong Holdings Limited had almost the same Chinese name with GDH Limited.