By Alison Leung
HONG KONG, April 8 (Reuters) - Chongqing Machinery & Electric Co Ltd , a Chinese joint venture partner of Swiss engineering group ABB Ltd , said it plans to buy assets at home and overseas to power growth under favourable policies from Beijing to support development in western China.
The company would need new capital to finance fast growth this year and would consider different financial instruments for raising funds, Chairman Xie Huajun told Reuters in an interview on Friday.
Based in the western city of Chongqing, the company makes heavy-duty diesel engines, gear boxes, gear-producing machines and other machinery. It enjoys a preferential tax rate of 15 percent under China's "Go-West" policy until 2020.
"Mergers and acquisitions are an effective method of expansion," Xie said. "This is a very hot topic in China now. For us, going out is a very bold but very rational move."
State-owned Chongqing Machinery is looking at 2-3 projects in each of its four manufacturing sectors of commercial vehicle parts and components, power equipment, general machinery and computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools. (Reporting by Alison Leung; Editing by Chris Lewis)