On the move by Temasek Holdings and JTC Corporation to merge four units into a mega-entity, SMU Vice President, Business Development and External Relations, Associate Professor of Finance Annie Koh said: “In China, the average size of cities is about five million and there are close to 100 of such cities. The top 20 cities in China [each have] a population of about 10 to 20 million. So if you don’t have the size, you clearly can’t take on the projects.” She added that the merger would mean more credibility from the perspective of state-owned companies in other countries, which will typically be involved in the projects too. “If it is four splintered entities, the state-owned enterprise won’t want to work with them, unless they are of a proportionate size. In terms of risk-sharing, a bigger company also makes sense from a counter-risk exposure point of view,” she said.