Seriously doubt it @Dungiven. iTEST are basically a highway...

Seriously doubt it @Dungiven. iTEST are basically a highway engineering firm. They can make more money with less investment and risk just utilizing their workforce and labour to install the projects. Buying Fluence and having worldwide projects makes no sense for a Hubei province based transport infrastructure engineering and operation firm. I don't think Fluence/Lauder would even consider it anyway at this stage, just prior to starting desal projects in Mexico/Brazil plus the Ivory Coast project, and being at the start of the Hunan Kaitian and Liaoning Huahong deals as well as having a few other big fish in discussions that have competing interests.

I believe iTEST will become a "master distributor" of sorts and on-sell their method of installing Aspiral container systems to other highway operators (through their connections at the China Highway Society) and that Fluence will pay them a fee for each project won as a sales team partner.

It seems iTEST may face similar political pressure to 3 Gorges Group and as a SoE be forced to expand their horizons into other environmental projects, so move from highway service area and toll station sewage into municipal/industrial sewage treatment where they will aim to win bulk PPP type projects for a whole region.

Fluence will be likely trying to talk to them about their R&D development of centralized sludge disposal, as at the moment, that is the main drawback of decentralized sewage treatment plants, collecting the sludge from each plant and disposing of it efficiently. It is more efficient at service areas, as they are directly on the main highways and are designed for truck access, but a different story in isolated rural areas. For Fluence's ideal network of decentralized plants to replace larger scale municipal plants effectively, there will need to be a centralized sludge disposal plant integrated into that system as well. SUBRE greenfield will also be on the cards for larger projects in the 600 m3/d to 4000 m3/d zone where treatment needs to be higher quality or more efficient.