The Tianjin branch of the Tongrentang Group, China's leading producer of traditional Chinese medicine, bought the Tianjin Goubuli Catering (Group) Corp., a 147-year-old famous Chinese snack producer, at a price of 106 million yuan (12.7 million US dollars) after two-hours of competitive bidding, Monday.

Six enterprises made bids for buying the assets of Goubuli at apublic bidding fair held at the Tianjin Municipal Property Right Transfer Center. When the bidding rose to 40.8 million yuan (4.9 million US dollars), four enterprises gave up. Finally, Tongrentang won the bid after 115 rounds of offers.

Goubuli is the name of a type of steamed pork-filled bun produced by the company, which has been popular with Chinese consumers during the past 147 years.

Established in 1858, Goubuli became a state-owned business in the 1950s and became the Tianjin Goubuli Catering (Group) Corp. inApril 1992.

The company has total assets of 117 million yuan (14.14 millionUS dollars) and a debt of 80.49 million yuan (9.73 million US dollars). Its net assets stood at 36.96 million yuan (4.47 millionUS dollars), according to the appraisal report made by Tianjin-based Xinhua Accounting Firm Ltd. It was sold with the bottom price of 15.19 million yuan (1.8 million US dollars) Monday.

Zhao Jiaxiang, chairman and general manager of Goubuli group, said his company had become an enterprise group comprising hotel, restaurant, snack bar, instant food producer, retail and logistic firms. It scored 74.92 million yuan (9 million US dollars) in business turnover last year, up by 29.93 percent over the previousyear.

Source: Xinhua