Shanghai Duty-Free Boardroom Coup: State Giant CTG Moves to Squeeze Out Foreign Partners from Airport Tenders

The conflict centers on a decisive board meeting held on December 6, 2025, just days before the tender submission deadline for Shanghai’s new eight-year airport duty-free concessions. During the meeting, Sunrise Chairman Wang Yanguang and other directors appointed by the controlling shareholder, CTG, voted against allowing the joint venture to participate in the bidding process. Since Sunrise requires board approval to submit a valid bid, this move effectively disqualifies the incumbent operator from renewing its core business, potentially rendering the joint venture a shell company once its current contract expires at the end of 2025.

Industry analysts interpret this "self-sabotage" as a calculated effort by CTG to restructure its dominance in China’s travel retail market. CTG, which acquired a 51% controlling stake in Sunrise in 2018, has historically shared the substantial profits from Shanghai’s airports with the original foreign founders and investors who retained the remaining 49%. By preventing the joint venture from securing the new contract, CTG clears the path for its wholly-owned subsidiary to bid for the concessions directly. If successful, this would eliminate the dividend leakage to minority partners and allow the state-owned enterprise to capture the full economic value of Shanghai’s twin aviation hubs, which are among the most valuable travel retail locations in Asia.

The tender itself, issued by the Shanghai Airport Authority, represents a pivotal moment for the industry, offering "3+5" and "5+3" year contract structures designed to incentivize long-term investment and service quality. The contracts cover the international departure and arrival shops at both Pudong and Hongqiao airports, a market segment that has become increasingly vital as domestic consumption slows. The exclusion of the legacy Sunrise joint venture signals a harsh consolidation phase where state-backed entities are aggressively moving to centralize control over critical tourism infrastructure, ending the era of cooperative foreign-domestic partnerships that helped build the sector.