Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and CCMP Capital Asia Pte Ltd. are competing to buy China's biggest food-processing company for as much as 1.5 billion yuan (187 million U.S. dollars), China Daily reported Friday.

Henan Luohe Shuanghui Industry Group Co., owned by the Luohe city government in Central China's Henan Province, plans to choose a winner this month, said the newspaper.

The acquisition, which would be the second largest this year by an overseas company in China, reflects investor interest in a consumer industry that caters to 1.3 billion people.

"In China, one area of great potential is the consumer market," said Jeanette Chan, a Hong Kong-based partner at the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison law firm.

Shuanghui Group, also known as Shineway Group, owns 36 percent of Shanghai-listed Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co, a Chinese meat processor. It asked for a minimum bid of 1 billion yuan (124 million U.S. dollars), according to information provided by China Beijing Equity Exchange, which is organizing the sale.

Shuanghui Group had 107.3 million yuan (13.4 million U.S. dollars) of net profit last year. The company had an 81.2 million yuan (10.15 million U.S. dollars) operating loss for the year, which was compensated by the investment gain, according to the Beijing Equity Exchange.

China, which accounts for 3.8 percent of global household spending, will become the second-biggest consumer market by 2014, according to economists at Credit Suisse Group.

Growing affluence and urbanization has prompted companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA to expand in the country, where the economy grew 9.9 percent in 2005.

Source: Xinhua