If at first you don’t succeed, inject another bunch of assets and try again. Not exactly a Deng Xiaoping maxim. But it is what Citic Group, the Chinese state-owned conglomerate set up in 1979 at his behest, is doing by shunting Rmb225bn ($36bn) of assets into Citic Pacific, its Hong Kong-listed unit – and the least-followed, least-liked stock in the Hang Seng.

In the 1990s when Citic Pacific entered the Hong Kong market, it was touted as China’s answer to the city’s famous trading houses, or hongs, including Jardines, Hutchison Whampoa and Swire Pacific. In proper hong style, it duly teamed up with its rivals and others to develop property, branch out into unrelated fields lacking synergies and take stakes in other companies. Its fall from grace over the past decade has been not due to its octopus-like structure (too common in Hong Kong), however, but a bad choice, namely its disastrous Sino Iron Australian venture, now running five times over budget. According to Bloomberg, just nine analysts follow Citic Pacific, a third of the average for Hang Seng companies. Five rated it a sell before this news.

Deal details are yet to be agreed, including the precise assets, their price, and the funding mix. The only 2013 numbers given for Citic Limited (owned by Citic Group), Citic Pacific’s 57.5 per cent controlling shareholder and the holder of the to-be-injected assets, are unaudited net asset value and net profits of Rmb225bn and Rmb34bn respectively. Still, the 15 per cent return on equity that implies at least helps explain yesterday’s 13 per cent share pop: Citic Pacific managed 6 per cent last year. For now without details, one can only imagine the negotiations under way between Citic Pacific and its parent over assets dominated by financial ones, but that also include oil, car parts, engineering, a football team, publishing and cable TV. Whatever the price, it will certainly transform Citic Pacific, making it about six times larger. Which makes it worth paying attention to, at least.