Following last month's list of the largest international water project developers (see GWI July 2022, p6), GWI has now completed its research into the top 20 Chinese project developers by cataloguing the net capacity they own in privately financed and owned municipal treatment plants. Beijing Enterprises Water Group and Beijing Capital secured the two top spots with huge water and wastewater portfolios accumulated during China's PPP boom between 2015 and 2018. Both of them are, however, attempting to adopt new asset-light approaches to boost investment as domestic market conditions have tightened due to the country's deleveraging since late 2018, which has led to narrowing margins and increased borrowing costs. China's largest membrane bioreac- tor manufacturer, Beijing OriginWater, placed third on the list. It has expanded rapidly over the past decade in the municipal wastewater treatment and reuse sectors, leveraging its strong membrane expertise, but sold a majority stake to state-backed China Urban-Rural Holdings to relieve its debt load after it saw its net profit halve in 2018 under the tougher market conditions.
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