Three Gorges in talks to buy China Water -paper

SHANGHAI, Aug 6 (Reuters) - China Three Gorges Project Corp, the country's largest hydroelectric power operator, is in talks to buy smaller rival China Water Investment Corp, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed officials at Three Gorges.

Three Gorges may also inject China Water Investment into its listed unit Yangtze Power Co (600900.SS), the newspaper said.

Three Gorges has total assets of more than 160 billion yuan ($23 billion) and posted a net profit of 12.94 billion yuan in 2007.

State-owned China Water Investment has 10 billion yuan in total assets and posted 3 billion yuan in sales in 2007.

Yangtze Power's shares have been suspended from trading since May 8, pending the announcement of a restructuring. Analysts believe that Yangtze Power may purchase from its parent group parts of the Three Gorges project that it does not already own. (US$1= 6.85 Yuan) (Reporting by Samuel Shen; Editing by Edmund Klamann)