Asia sees widespread McDonald’s refugee phenomenon

Asia sees widespread McDonald’s refugee phenomenon

Staff Reporter

2013-09-01

McDonald’s introduced 24-hour operations in its chains in Japan in 2006, and since then a number of homeless people have chosen to stay in its stores for a long-term stay due to its cheap costs, earning them the name McDonald’s refugees. Media outlets in mainland China, Hong Kong and South Korea have also done their own reports on the phenomenon which has been widely seen across the region, NetEase’s online news unit reports. These homeless or jobless people, who cannot afford to pay normal rentals due to low income, have chosen to stay in 24 hour restaurants like McDonald’s. Always-open restaurants started in China in 2006, with the media reporting the refugee phenomenon at a Beijing location in December 2006. In 2007, Hong Kong and South Korea media began similar reports, finding more and more low-income people choosing to stay at McDonald’s for the long-term. Read more of this post

Laos Bourse to Open Bond Trading, Triple New Stocks after posting a loss every year since it opened in 2011

Laos Bourse to Open Bond Trading, Triple New Stocks to Halt Loss

Lao Securities Exchange will start trading bonds and triple the number of listed companies next year to raise revenue after posting a loss every year since it opened in 2011.

The exchange, the second-smallest by market capitalization among 84 global bourses tracked by Bloomberg, after Swaziland, plans to begin government bond trading for the first time early next year, according to Chief Executive Officer Dethphouvang Moularat. It will also expand the number of listed stocks to six, from two, he said. Laos World Co. Ltd., a trade exhibition operator, and a state-controlled cement maker are among companies to join the Laos Composite Index. (LSXC) Read more of this post

What’s the Difference Between U.S., Chinese Corruption?

What’s the Difference Between U.S., Chinese Corruption?

Forming opinions in the absence of facts is a dangerous business, which is why it’s premature to draw conclusions about whether the government is on the right track with its investigation of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s hiring practices in China. That said, if the feds are going to make a case, they will need a lot more evidence on the bank than what the New York Times offered today in its latest article on the subject. Maybe they will find it. The article relies on information from people whom the Times didn’t identify. So it’s sometimes hard to tell whose version of events we’re getting — the government’s or JPMorgan’s. The article does refer to a “confidential government document” as a key source, although it obviously isn’t very confidential because the Times said the document was sent to JPMorgan. Read more of this post

Wahaha needs a new business model, says Kelly Zong

Wahaha needs a new business model, says Kelly Zong

Staff Reporter

2013-08-31

Kelly Zong, the daughter of Hangzhou Wahaha chairman Zong Qinghou, has said the beverage empire that has made her father one of China’s richest men is gradually losing its advantage in terms of business model and product lines. Her father’s anointed successor, Zong has rarely discussed in the past the management issues and future development concerns of the company, worth an estimated 32 billion yuan (US$5.2 billion). She revealed her apprehensions about the company’s business model recently however in an interview with ifeng.com, the news website run by Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV network. Read more of this post

Too big to hail: China’s banking behemoths are too beholden to the state. It is time to set finance free

Too big to hail: China’s banking behemoths are too beholden to the state. It is time to set finance free

Aug 31st 2013 |From the print edition

AT FIRST sight, China seems to have a superb banking system. Its state-controlled banks, among the biggest and most profitable in the world, have negligible levels of non-performing loans and are well capitalised. That appears to suggest that the country’s approach should be applauded. Not so. For one thing, though China’s banking system is stable, its banks are not as healthy as they seem. The credit binge of recent years has left them with far higher levels of risky loans than they acknowledge. And a profit squeeze is coming. The banks are having to work harder to keep both their biggest depositors, who are tempted by alternative investment products, and their biggest borrowers, who are turning to the bond market instead. As a consequence, the country’s Big Four banks—Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank—will no longer make easy money by merely issuing soft loans to state-owned enterprises, or SOEs (see article). Read more of this post

China’s War On Online Gossip Is Starting To Get Scary

China’s War On Online Gossip Is Starting To Get Scary

ADAM TAYLOR AUG. 31, 2013, 11:49 AM 1,730 2

An image featured on China’s gossip-reporting website

These days its rare to read a story about the gritty side of Chinese life without a mention of an overseas gossip website, or an angry reaction from Weibo’s online mob, the so-called “human flesh search engine.” Authorities aren’t too pleased with the gossipy world online — perhaps understanding that frequently this gossip is designed to undermine politicians and officials. A state-directed campaign to clamp down on rumors dates back at least a few years, with state-run newspapers comparing gossip to heroin and cocaine in 2011. However, in the last month there appears to have been a notable uptick in the war on rumors with arrests and people detained: It’s starting to get some people worried. Read more of this post

SEC Is Shocked, Shocked by Business as Usual in China

SEC Is Shocked, Shocked by Business as Usual in China

According to a Bloomberg News report, the Securities and Exchange Commission is on the verge of figuring out how business is actually done in China. The key to this discovery is a spreadsheet that the SEC obtained from JPMorgan Chase & Co.. It includes two key sets of data: the names of the offspring of some of China’s most prominent families, and a list of “specific deals pursued by the bank.” According to the Bloomberg report, combining these two data sets has provided investigators with a Rosetta Stone-like insight into how the bank just might make money in the Middle Kingdom: The spreadsheet, which links some hiring decisions to specific transactions pursued by the bank, may be viewed by regulators as evidence that JPMorgan added people in exchange for business, according to one person with knowledge of the review. Read more of this post

Foreclosures rising in China’s “entrepreneur city” Wenzhou as properties drop below mortgage values

Foreclosures rising in Wenzhou as properties drop below mortgage values

Staff Reporter

2013-09-01

Many upscale housing units in Wenzhou are reportedly half empty amid a bout of foreclosures. (Photo/Xinhua)

Foreclosures are spiking in the city of Wenzhou in east China’s Zhejiang province as shrinking property prices have turned properties into negative equity, reports the Shenzhen-based Security Times. Since hitting a peak around two years ago, property prices in Wenzhou have declined sharply, so much so that the market value of many properties has fallen below the amount of their corresponding loans, turning them into negative-value assets. Read more of this post

Corrupt, anonymous and in thrall to the party – China is not the new Japan; However big the statistics say the Chinese economy is, it will never reach its full potential until the state relinquishes its grip

Corrupt, anonymous and in thrall to the party – China is not the new Japan

However big the statistics say the Chinese economy is, it will never reach its full potential until the state relinquishes its grip

Will Hutton

The Observer, Sunday 1 September 2013

It is a paradox. China is the world’s leading exporter ahead of both the US and Germany. If you trust its figures, it is the second biggest economy. Yet it succeeds in making only 9.5% of internationally applicable, so-called “triadic”, patents. This is a country whose growth has not been propelled by innovation. The failure is matched by a parallel failure of Chinese firms to develop as multinationals. When Japan was rising to global economic prominence in the 60s and 70s, its car and electronics companies became household names. No such claim can be made for China. Its big companies, still either state-owned or heavily state-influenced, are largely anonymous. There are certainly no Chinese multinationals of the standing of, say, Toyota, Sony or Hitachi.

Read more of this post

China’s largest village corruption case explodes in Zhejiang

China’s largest village corruption case explodes in Zhejiang

Staff Reporter 

2013-08-29

Ten officials in Xinqiao, a small village in easterns China’s Zhejiang province, have whipped up what has been deemed the nation’s biggest collective corruption case on record for village-level governance in the history of the People’s Republic of China. The alleged crimes involve the illicit seizure of 316 resettlement houses, worth 1.8 billion yuan (US$294 million), reports the Beijing-based Economic Observer. Read more of this post

China’s top anti-corruption agency is investigating Jiang Jiemin, head of the commission overseeing the country’s biggest state-owned enterprises

China State Assets Head Jiang Under Investigation

By Nerys Avery – Sep 1, 2013

(Corrects month of Jiang’s appointment in third paragraph.)

China’s top anti-corruption agency is investigating Jiang Jiemin, head of the commission overseeing the country’s biggest state-owned enterprises, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today. Jiang, 57, head of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, is being probed by the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection over “suspected serious disciplinary violations,” Xinhua said in a one-paragraph report today. No further details were given. Jiang, who was appointed to the commission in March, is the latest senior official to come under investigation after Xi Jinping pledged to root out corruption when he took over as head of the party in November. Liu Tienan, vice chairman of the country’s planning agency, was expelled from the party in August after being fired in May after a probe began and Li Chuncheng, a deputy party secretary of Sichuan province was put under investigation in December, Xinhua reported at the time. The South China Morning Post said Aug. 30 that party leaders have agreed to investigate retired Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang on corruption allegations, citing people it didn’t identify. Leaders made the decision because of rising anger inside the party at the scale of corruption and the vast fortune amassed by his family, it said. News of Jiang’s investigation comes a week after the trial of ousted Politburo member Bo Xilai, who was charged with bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nerys Avery in Beijing at navery2@bloomberg.net

Billions wiped from blue-chips as carbon tax hits Australia’s top companies

Billions wiped from blue-chips as carbon tax hits Australia’s top companies

STEVE LEWIS AND STEPHEN MCMAHON

NEWS LIMITED NETWORK

AUGUST 30, 2013 1:07PM

Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti said the carbon tax had added nearly $50 million to the company’s 2012/13 expenses. Source: News Limited

VIRGIN Airlines has blamed the carbon tax for contributing to a $98 million full-year loss, adding to corporate concerns that Labor’s climate change scheme is wiping billions of dollars off blue-chip profits. Australia’s second biggest airline on Friday morning announced the carbon tax had added nearly $50 million to its 2012/13 expenses – around half the amount booked by Qantas, which said the green impost added $106 million. Read more of this post