China :: Business & Economy

PRIVATE equity firm Blackstone Group will pay about US$9.4 billion for the US shopping mall assets of Australias debt-laden Centro Properties after winning a three-way bidding contest, a source with knowledge of the transaction said yesterday. Blackstone beat rival bidders including Morgan Stanley Real State, which had teamed up with Starwood Capital Group and New York-based NRDC, the source said. Blackstone agreed to pay book value for the assets which Centro has valued at around US$9.4 billion, the source said, confirming media reports. Shares in Centro were earlier placed in a trading halt ahead of an expected announcement about a potential transaction. Centro narrowed down bidders for the US shopping mall assets to three consortiums, including Blackstone, sources told Reuters on February 9 and the final bids for the 600 US properties were due by the end of February.- Shanghai Daily

AROUND 11.5 million square meters of affordable homes is scheduled to be released on to the local market this year, a top housing official announced yesterday. This will include budget homes, houses built for relocated residents under urban redevelopment plans and public housing units for rental, Liu Haisheng, director of the Shanghai Municipal Housing Support and Building Administration Bureau, told a municipal conference. On the supply side, the city government aims to commence construction on and make arrangements for 15 million square meters of affordable houses. This includes 5 million square meters of budget homes, 8 million square meters of houses designated for relocated residents as well as 2 million square meters of public rent units. The yearly target has been mapped out in accordance with an earlier five-year plan under which 1 million affordable apartments should be released in Shanghai between 2011 and 2015, Liu said. Around 50,000 households in Shanghai may submit applic...

BAYER AG has reported a fourth-quarter loss of 145 million euros (US$199 million) after the pharmaceutical and chemical company took special charges. The loss for the October-December period compared with a net profit of 153 million euros a year earlier. But the company said yesterday revenues were up 14.5 percent - climbing to 9.01 billion euros from 7.87 billion euros. Bayer says it was helped by earnings growth at its MaterialScience unit, which produces high-tech materials such as polycarbonates and polyurethanes. The company says full-year earnings dipped 4.3 percent. Source:Shanghai Daily

Bangladesh's inflation leaped to 8. 28 percent in December 2010 due to soaring food costs, official figures showed Sunday. According to data released by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics ( BBS), the inflation rate went up from November's 7.54 percent to 8. 28 percent in December. The BBS data showed that the country's food prices grew at 11. 01 percent in December from 9.80 percent in November. Price hike of food items particularly staple rice is a key concern for the South Asian country's government as nearly 40 percent of its over 150 million people live on less than one U.S. dollar a day and spend 70 percent of their income on food purchase. In case of non-food items the rate of inflation, however, declined to 3.27 percent in December 2010 from 3.33 percent in November, the BBS data showed. The average inflation rate in Bangladesh during the 12 months of the last 2009-10 fiscal year reached 7.31 percent although the country's government wanted to ke...

South Korea raised its energy alert level in the face of soaring oil prices, a move aimed at reducing energy consumption in the country, the government said Sunday. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said it had decided to upgrade the country's energy alert level from the current "blue" to "yellow" and adopt energy saving measures. The move came as the price of crude oil had leapt above the key 100 U.S. dollars a barrel for five consecutive days, the ministry said. South Korea relies heavily on oil imports from the Middle East to meet its energy consumption. With the elevated alert status, public places will be required to avoid unnecessary energy consumption. The government will restrict retail outlets and apartment complexes from lighting up building exteriors and advertisements late in the night, the ministry said. The ministry plans to impose a fine up to 3 million won (2,664 U.S. dollars) on violators after a seven-day guidance period. If oil...

Guangxi Zhuang Automomous Region, Chinas largest sugar-producing base, is building the countrys largest sugar trading center and online trading platform. According to data released by the Guangxi Sugar Trade Fair recently, a total of 10,133 square kilometers of sugarcane were planted in the 2010-2011 grinding season. The sugar output is expected to top 7 million tons, accounting for 66 percent of the total domestic sugar production. From 2011 to 2015, a plantation of about 10,000 square kilometers of sugarcane will be maintained in Guangxi. By 2015, sugar output will reach more than 11 million tons. Guangxi is now striving to develop an e-commerce platform and logistics system for sugar. Guangxi Sugar Network, known as Chinas first sugar site, has launched online trading platform and set up a logistics company specializing in sugar trade. On this basis, Guangxi has decided to build the countrys largest sugar trading and online trading platforms by 2015.

CHINA plans a drastic expansion of its stock markets and expects its NASDAQ-style start-up board to grow nearly 10 times by 2015. The ambitious Five-Year Plan for China's capital markets will invite an average of 300 new comers every year to the securities markets, which include two main boards, a small and medium-sized enterprises board and ChiNext, a board for high-growth start-ups, Securities Times reported today. The SME and ChiNext boards will take the center stage in the expansion with companies listed on ChiNext to exceed 1,000 from the current 183. ChiNext, which was launched by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange last June, has a total market value of 797.26 billion yuan (US$121.35 billion) by today. The 7-year-old SME, also based in Shenzhen, now has 552 listed firms with a gross value of 3.54 trillion yuan. Shanghai A-share market is the biggest board in the mainland with 901 listed companies and a total market value of 18.63 trillion yuan. Shenzhen has a smaller market with 485...

Chinas centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported a net profit of 70.55 billion yuan (about 10.73 billion U.S. dollars) in January, up 24 percent year on year, the nations SOEs regulator said Monday. According to a statement of Chinas State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), the combined business revenue of the centrally administered SOEs reached 1.431 trillion yuan last month, up 23 percent year on year, but the growth rate was 44.8 percentage points lower than that of 2010. SASAC said the growth rate soared 67.8 percent in January of 2010 when compared with the same period of 2009, which saw a sharp decline in combined business revenue due to the global financial crisis. The centrally administered SOEs turned in 182.7 billion yuan in taxes in January, up 29.6 percent year on year, but the growth was 22.1 percentage points smaller than that of last year. There are 121 centrally-administered SOEs under the SASAC. - Xinhua

China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd unveiled a bigger and revised fundraising plan late Friday, aiming to raise about $4.5 billion to boost its capital after opposition from small shareholders to an earlier plan. Minsheng, Chinas seventh-largest lender, plans to issue up to 20 billion yuan ($3.04 billion) in convertible bonds and not more than 1.65 billion Hong Kong-listed shares, scrapping its previous plan for a private share placement in Shanghai. That would be 37 percent more than its previous refinancing plan. - Global Times

Fifteen-minute specials every day on a prime time TV show for two consecutive weeks featuring a galaxy of Chinese A-list celebrities and fashion bloggers as guest hosts. Its the auspicious publicity every fashion house craves, and for Chanel, one of the worlds most recognized fashion houses, it was a dream come true. Centered around its biggest ever exhibition in China, Culture Chanel, the program, sharing the same name as the exhibition, was aired at 10:30 pm every night from Jan 14 for a fortnight. It was shown on Channel Young, a Shanghai-based TV station that focuses purely on fashion and urban lifestyles, the only one of its kind in China. Not only has it been a boost for Chanel but it is also a marketing bonanza for the TV station, with ratings climbing to an historical high of more than four points. The program featured a documentary-like review of the fascinating life of Gabrielle Coco Chanel, the late founder of the fashion house, and her brilliant designs. It stood out like a...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday he was determined to tame the country's runaway housing prices and keep them at a reasonable level during his tenure, which is to end in March 2013. Wen made the pledge in response to complaints about soaring home prices in an online chat with the public, jointly hosted by the websites of the central government (www.gov.cn) and Xinhua News Agency (www.news.cn). Year-on-year growth rates of property prices in 2010 were: January 9.5 percent, February 10.7 percent, March 11.7 percent, April 12.8 percent, May 12.4 percent, June 11.4 percent, July 10.3 percent, August 9.3 percent, September 9.1 percent, October 8.6 percent, November 7.7 percent, December 6.4 percent. The government has announced a series of policies to discourage property speculation and curb excessive gains from home prices, which include: Last year: Jan. 10: The State Council says it will maintain the minimum down payment for purchases of second homes at 40 perce...

Brazil's state-controlled oil and gas giant Petrobras on Friday reported record-high net earnings of 35.1 billion reais (21.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2010, up 17 percent from 2009. Petrobras' net operating revenue totaled 213.2 billion reais (128.4 billion dollars) in 2010, also 17 percent higher than that in 2009. Gross profit was up 4 percent, reaching 77.2 billion reais (46.5 billion dollars), while operating profit rose by 2 percent to 47 billion reais (28.3 billion dollars). The company's investments in 2010, which mainly focused on production capacity building, the improvement of the refining structure and natural gas infrastructure, amounted 76.4 billion reais (46 billion dollars), 8 percent higher than in 2009. Petrobras' total oil and gas production increased 2 percent in the year, reaching 2.583 million barrels a day on average. Source:Xinhua

Hundreds of consumers had to wait hours when a branch of electrical retail giant Best Buy failed to open until 3pmFriday to deal with their concerns. Best Buy closed its nine outlets in China on Tuesday, including six in Shanghai, citing "a change of business strategy." Two city stores reopened on Thursday to deal with after-sales issues. However, yesterday, despite hundreds of people waiting, the Xujiahui branch remained closed until mid afternoon. "We were fooled! Best Buy said it would continue to offer an after-sales service, but that has turned out to be a joke," said Jean Wang, whose friend was in the queue and had asked her to buy takeaway food at lunchtime. Police were also puzzled by the late opening. "We don't know why they didn't open this morning. However, for customers' safety, we got someone to open the store's door," said a police officer. Former employees queuing for refunds for products expressed their dissatisfaction with ...

U.S. economic growth was revised downward to an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with the estimated pace of 3.2 percent in January, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced on Friday. Source: Xinhua

China Unicom signed an agreement with the government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Feb. 24, under which the south China region's capital city of Nanning will be built into China Unicom's fourth exit and entry point for international telecom services. This is mainly to provide services between China and ASEAN. This is China Unicom's fourth international communications business access after Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. By People's Daily Online

Chinese shares opened mixed Friday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.06 percent to 2,876.78. The Shenzhen Component Index opened 0.06 percent higher to 12,585.82.

A customer looks at a Buick at a General Motors dealership in Shanghai. In an impressive comeback from bankruptcy, GM last year posted its first annual profit since 2004, helping the firm to repay more of the taxpayer bailout and even recapture the title of No. 1 global auto maker this year. Its net income was US$4.7 billion in 2010, fueled by strong sales in China and the United States as the global auto market began to recover. GM yesterday posted net income of US$510 million in the fourth quarter, its lowest quarterly profit of last year.

The overseas edition of Peoples Daily cited a local media report in Taiwan on Wednesday saying that as of the end of January 2011, 112 companies based in the Chinese mainland had received approval from Chinas Taiwan to invest a total value of 4.3 billion Taiwan dollars in Taiwan. Besides that, there were 445 investment projects in Taiwan launched by Taiwan-funded businesses on the mainland, which amounted to 117.4 billion Taiwan dollars. From Jan. 1 to Jan. 15 2011, major applications for preferential tariffs for Taiwan exports to the mainland under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) were for petroleum chemical products and machinery, which are worth 3.2 billion Taiwan dollars and 500 million Taiwan dollars, respectively. Applications for tariff reduction for mainland exports to Taiwan are focused on 8.8 million Taiwan dollars of machinery and 6.8 million Taiwan dollars of acid dyes. The ECFA was signed in 2010 to promote cross-strait economic and trade exchanges and c...

Chinas economy in 2011 faces six challenges, and preventing investment fluctuation will be a major task of this year, said Wang Yuanhong, a senior researcher with the State Information Center, on Wednesday. According to Wang, the six challenges include: First, China will face many obstacles in transforming the economic growth pattern. Second, there is a strong investment impulse across China and higher risk in the financial and monetary system. Third, the agriculture foundation is weak. The problems of the supply of agriculture products will not only endanger the regulation of commodity prices, but also have effect on Chinas stable and rapid economic development. Fourth, the implementation of property control policies, in a sense, will decide the short-term development trend of Chinas economy this year. Fifth, although the increase of costs of productions factors, such as labor, will promote the change of Chinas economic development pattern in the long term, it will also have an impact...

China's imports of iron ore stood at 618.64 million tonnes in 2010, down 9.13 million tonnes compared to the previous year, figures released Thursday by the China Iron and Steel Association showed. But spending on the imports hit 79.43 billion U.S. dollars, up 29.28 billion U.S. dollars, the figures showed. Source:Xinhua

Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances Group (BSH) said on Wednesday that it plans to build a new refrigerator production base in China. The announcement underlines the Germany-based companys ambition to further expand in Chinas growing high-end refrigerator market. The company said it will invest about 900 million yuan ($137 million) to build its second Chinese production facility in Chuzhou, Anhui province. The factory will have a production capacity of more than 5 million refrigerators annually. Construction will start on March 1 and finish in December. The factory is scheduled to become operational in 2013. The company already has one factory in Chuzhou, which opened in 1996 and has an annual capacity of 2.8 million. It will focus on producing high-end refrigerators, including side-by-side and multi-door products, under the Siemens brand. The base will solve the problem of undercapacity in refrigerator products that we faced last year. It is also part of our strategy to strengthen manuf...

Taobao.com,China's largest online shopping platform, yesterday said it will invest 300 million yuan (US$45 million) in the next three years to subsidize and support third-party software and service providers. "Taobao's major challenge comes from the ever-growing demand from customers and vendors, and the best way to solve this problem is to open our platform to welcome more service providers," said Lu Zhaoxi, Taobao's chief executive officer. Taobao will encourage these service providers by giving them subsidies and Taobao will offer them more room to develop, said Zhang Yong, chief financial officer of Taobao. "We will focus on medium and large service providers, and Taobao will take 30 percent of the income, leaving 70 percent for the application developers," said Wang Wenbin, vice president of Taobao. The four major sectors that applications developers should focus on are helping vendors to market their products, analyzing statistics of visitors and s...

Watch Video Play Video Let's begin in Hong Kong where the economy is set to expand by as much as 5 percent this year, and inflation remains the major challenge. That's according to Hong Kong's financial secretary, John Tsang, in his budget speech for the 2011 to 2012 fiscal year. Tsang says the economy bounced back strongly last year, thanks to strong growth in the Chinese Mainland and the rest of Asia. In his forth budget speech, John Tsang says Hong Kong's GDP grew by 6.8 percent in 2010. That surpasses pre-tsunami levels, and is largely thanks to strong growth on the Chinese Mainland and other Asian trade partners. Tsang says Hong Kong's economy has fully recovered, and forecasts growth of between four to five percent in 2011. Looking ahead, Tsang perceives increasing risks of inflation and asset-price bubbles as major challenges for the SAR. He expects underlying inflation for 2011 will average at around 4.5 percent. He says the soft U.S. dollar and possib...

STOCKS fell for a second straight day yesterday after clashes in Libya sent oil prices to two-year highs and technology giant Hewlett-Packard said its revenue growth was slowing. Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi continued to fight with anti-government demonstrators, leading to widespread chaos and shooting in the streets of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Nearly 300 people have been killed, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch. The unrest sent oil up 3.5 percent to nearly US$99 a barrel, its highest price since October 2008. Libya is the world's 15th largest exporter of crude, accounting for 2 percent of global daily output. Traders are worried the revolt could threaten Libya's oil production and spread to other countries in the region. "We're at a point where the market is concerned over this series of dominoes in the Middle East and wonders if there's another country that's next to fall," said David Katz, a portfolio strategist fo...

China will issue 28 billion yuan (4.25 billion U.S. dollars) of book-entry treasury bonds and 60 billion yuan (9.12 billion U.S. dollars) of certificate treasury bonds in the coming days, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday. With a term of 30 years, the bonds will have a fixed annual par interest rate of 4.31 percent. The interests will be paid every six months. The selling period of the bonds will last five days from Feb. 24 to 28, and the bonds will become tradable in the exchange markets starting on March 2. This is the fifth group of its kind launched by the ministry this year. The ministry also said on Wednesday that it would float 60 billion yuan of certificate T-bonds -- the first batch of this year -- between March 1 and 21. The bonds include 12 billion yuan of one-year bonds with a fixed annual interest rate of 3.45 percent, 30 billion yuan of three-year bonds with an annual interest rate of 5.18 percent, and 18 billion yuan of five-year bonds with an annual interest rat...

NIKE, Inc. will have the annual revenue of its operations in greater China double the level for 2010 fiscal year in 2015, according to Craig Cheek, vice president of Nike, Inc. and general manager of Greater China for NIKE, Inc. Nikes revenue in Greater China for the 2010 fiscal year (between June 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010) exceeded 1.7 billion U.S. dollars. The world s leading sport goods supplier has officially opened its largest logistics center in Asia. The center s business covers garments, footwear, sports gears and golf products. The center will begin to deal with footwear orders in April, sources with the Nike Sports (China) Co., Ltd. said Wednesday. The new logistics center started dealing with garment orders from the Chinese mainland on a trial term in mid 2010. Located in Taicang of east China s Jiangsu Province and covering a floor space of 200,000 square meters, the center is Nike s seventh logistics center and the second largest one worldwide. - Xinhua

HEWLETT-PACKARD Inc's TouchPad will debut in the Chinese market by the end of this year, the world's No. 1 personal computer maker said yesterday. HP's WebOS-based TouchPad release is the PC giant's latest expansion in the tablet market, which is dominated by Apple Inc's iPad. Other firms - Motorola, RIM and Lenovo - have launched their tablets. HP also displayed its latest phone, PC and printer technologies at a conference in Shanghai yesterday.

China will issue 28 billion yuan (4.25 billion U.S. dollars) of book-entry treasury bonds and 60 billion yuan (9.12 billion U.S. dollars) of certificate treasury bonds in the coming days, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday. With a term of 30 years, the bonds will have a fixed annual par interest rate of 4.31 percent. The interests will be paid every six months. The selling period of the bonds will last five days from Feb. 24 to 28, and the bonds will become tradable in the exchange markets starting on March 2. This is the fifth group of its kind launched by the ministry this year. The ministry also said on Wednesday that it would float 60 billion yuan of certificate T-bonds -- the first batch of this year -- between March 1 and 21. The bonds include 12 billion yuan of one-year bonds with a fixed annual interest rate of 3.45 percent, 30 billion yuan of three-year bonds with an annual interest rate of 5.18 percent, and 18 billion yuan of five-year bonds with an an...

The overseas edition of People's Daily cited a local media report in Taiwan on Wednesday saying that as of the end of January 2011, 112 companies based in the Chinese mainland had received approval from China's Taiwan to invest a total value of 4.3 billion Taiwan dollars in Taiwan. Besides that, there were 445 investment projects in Taiwan launched by Taiwan-funded businesses on the mainland, which amounted to 117.4 billion Taiwan dollars. From Jan. 1 to Jan. 15 2011, major applications for preferential tariffs for Taiwan exports to the mainland under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) were for petroleum chemical products and machinery, which are worth 3.2 billion Taiwan dollars and 500 million Taiwan dollars, respectively. Applications for tariff reduction for mainland exports to Taiwan are focused on 8.8 million Taiwan dollars of machinery and 6.8 million Taiwan dollars of acid dyes. The ECFA was signed in 2010 to promote cross-strait economic...

Alibaba Hit by Fraud Scandal The resignation of a Chinese company's top executive may restore public confidence in the firm. AFP Jack Ma, Alibaba.com chairman, gives a thumbs up after the company's initial stock public offering in Hong Kong, Nov. 6, 2007. China's biggest e-commerce company, Alibaba, was scrambling to salvage its reputation on Tuesday following the resignation of its chief executive amid a surge in fraudulent transactions. The company's share price lost nearly nine percent of its value on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after the electronic commerce giant announced it would replace CEO David Wei and and COO Elvis Lee. The Alibaba bosses had accepted responsibility after thousands of suppliers were terminated for using the site to cheat buyers. 'Alibaba will definitely not become a money machine, and any behavior that runs against the company's values will not be tolerated,' the company said in a statement to the media. The company...

Pernod-Ricard SA, the maker of Absolut vodka, reported first-half earnings growth that missed analysts’ estimates after it boosted spending on advertising and promotions to drive sales of major brands in emerging markets. Earnings before interest and taxes, excluding the effect of acquisitions and disposals, rose 8 percent in the six months ended Dec. 31, less than the average 9 percent increase predicted by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue excluding acquisitions advanced 7 percent, the company said today in a statement. That missed estimates for a 7.7 percent increase. Pernod declined as much as 4.2 percent, or 2.98 euros, to 67.65 euros in Paris trading and was down 3.6 percent at 11:23 a.m. The stock has gained 19 percent in the last 12 months. The distiller increased advertising and promotional spending “absolutely in line with what we said when we started the year,” Chief Executive Officer Pierre Pringuet said in a telephone interview. “We need to invest more in the fast- d...

SHANGHAI stock market showed signs of recovery from yesterday's plunge as the key stock index closed slightly higher on strength of paper producers and commodity shares. But the gains among these sectors were partly offset by market heavyweights such as oil makers whose production is likely to be disturbed by the worsening revolt in Libya and Middle East. The Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.25 percent to 2,862.63. Turnover fell sharply to 137.63 billion yuan (US$20.95 billion) from yesterday's 192 billion yuan. Analysts regarded the momentum in the paper-making industry was reasonable as these firms have long been neglected by investors and stayed inactive during this month's rebound. Fujian Nanzhi Co added 3.74 percent to 5.82 yuan. Yueyang Paper Co gained 3.63 percent to 9.43 yuan. Commodities continued to outperform the market as investors look for safety on intensifying unrest in the Middle East. Zhongjin Gold climbed 4.81 percent while Shandong Gold Co soared 5.17 ...

Renren, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, is planning to go public , the first social networking site to do so:. From the Guardian: Renren.com has hired the investment banks Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank to advise it on the initial public offer (IPO), which could raise $500m (£310m), according to the Financial Times. Estimated to have 22m active users, renren – which means “everyone” – is the largest site of its kind in China. It was founded in 2005 by three Chinese graduates of the University of Delaware under the name of Xiaonei, or “inside school”, and is now the most popular social network among Chinese students. The IPO would follow successful recent debuts by other Chinese tech stars. The online TV company Youku.com listed on the New York Stock Exchange in December. Its shares closed up 161% on the first day of trading and have performed well since. Shares in the e-commerce site Dangdang jumped 87% on the first day and have continued to increase in value. Baid...

If you could buy stock in a company growing revenues at approximately 100% per year, with a net income margin that figures to improve, no longer needing to sell additional shares to support organic growth, and trading at a trailing price/earnings ratio of 7, would you do it? Of course you would. Well, now you can. And, no, the company isn’t a fraud. And, yes, the company’s products work. In fact, they work very well. From Yongye International’s ( YONG ) 2009 10-K, page 4: On December 6, 2008, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Scientific and Technology Bureau (IMARSTB) thoroughly reviewed scientific and economic data provided by the Company and reached the opinion that our liquid plant product effectively increases agricultural output, improves the utilization rate of fertilizer, enhances a plant’s resistance to disease and has a lighter weight and higher bio-activity than the other products it tested. In addition, the IMARSTB concluded that large scale experimentation has proven tha...