Reportedly, Merrill Lynch & Co Inc has initially entered into an agreement with Ziping Cement Co. Under the agreement, the former will hold 46% stakes in the latter for US$50M. Ziping Cement is based in Wenchuan, the epicenter of the May 12 earthquake.

ML's Corporate Principal Investment is the investor of this deal and also the investor of the US$30M investment in Shanxi United Magnesium Industry Co., Ltd. ML's Corporate Principal Investment and ML's Direct Investment Arm have their own management teams. The capital of ML's Corporate Principal Investment originates from ML's own capital (the pool has exceeded US$1 billion) and its investment scope is worldwide. 

When it comes to the loss level of the earthquake-hit region, Huatai Securities pointed out in a report that it is very serious, and the scale of the reconstruction will be very large. The region¡¯s infrastructure business will be relatively large for a long period of time. Demand for cement products will be tremendous. Lianhe Securities Analyst Huan Zhou said, "We initially estimate the cement demand for the reconstruction will be from 80 million tons to 100 million tons. In the current situation, cement products are of serious shortage."