It is a truism amongst fund managers that very few of China's 1200 and more listed companies have the earnings to reflect China's dazzling GDP growth over the last 20 years. The energy sector is a good example. With demand rocketing on the back of 10% GDP growth a year for the past decade and more, the sector would seem to be a sure winner.
But for many foreign and domestic investors the uneven liberalization of the energy sector is having painful consequences. The main problem is that despite large-scale price liberalization, key commodities such as coal, the most important source of fuel for China's power companies, are still under government...
