S. Korean businesses spooked by being branded as ‘next Tong Yang’

S. Korean businesses spooked by being branded as ‘next Tong Yang’

Noh Won-myung, Lim Sung-hyun

2013.10.21 14:46:31

South Korean businesses are spooked by being labeled as the “next Tong Yang,” as rumors abound some companies will follow the fate of Tong Yang Group, which collapsed under the pressure of cash crunch. Companies are fretting about being branded as a potential victim, which could cripple them by turning away lenders irrespective of their actual financial status. Kim Jun-ki, chairman of Dongbu Group, was forced to clarify the financial health of the conglomerate himself Saturday to quell the speculation surrounding the Group.
Also, Doosan Group is also rumored to face cash crunch, after having pursued a series of merger and acquisition deals in the last 10 years and thus seen its debt to equity ratio rise.
The talks has emerged that steelmakers, builders, heavy industry companies, and marine shippers have been troubled by liquidity shortage since the early days of the Tong Yang Group’s crisis. Now a new term, “3D Group,” has been coined to call Tong Yang Group, Dongbu Group and Doosan Group. Choi Soo-hyun, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, said “there are four more conglomerates like Tong Yang Group. We are investigating and are on lookout for them.”

‘LS Cable should be punished’ for providing faulty cables to nuclear power plants, causing at least one-year delay in the operation of two new reactors

2013-10-20 17:22

‘LS should be punished’

Energy experts call for example-setting action on faulty cable maker
By Choi Kyong-ae
Lawyers and energy experts are calling on the government to get tough with JS Cable. JS Cable is an affiliate of LS Group and was recently found to have provided faulty cables to nuclear power plants, causing at least one-year delay in the operation of two new reactors. Read more of this post

Koreans consumed less coffee for third straight quarters due mainly to the prolonged global economic slowdown denting their spending activities

2013-10-21 11:14

Coffee consumption declines for 3rd straight Qtrs

Koreans consumed less coffee in the second quarter of 2013 from a year earlier, data showed Monday, due mainly to the prolonged global economic slowdown denting their spending activities. The average spending of local households on coffee and tea came to 7,873 won (US$7.41) in the April-June period, falling 1.8 percent from 8,017 won tallied last year, the Korean Statistical Information Service data showed. It marked the second quarterly drop in 2013. While the figure edged down 1.3 percent on-year in the fourth quarter of 2007, it had maintained a quarterly on-year gain hovering around 10.5 percent between 2008-2012. Market watchers said the recent decline came as South Koreans tightened their belts amid global economic uncertainties, and rising competition in the market also added to the limited expansion of the industry. “As major franchise coffee shops are also suffering a decline in their earnings, the falling household spending on the beverage may not be a temporal phenomenon,” a local analyst said. “While opening coffee shops was considered to be high-profit and low-cost business opportunities for the post-retirement period, (South Koreans) should now be more careful before considering opening one,” the analyst added. South Korean households’ spending on alcoholic beverages, meanwhile, expanded 8.7 percent to 10,163 won over the cited period, while expenditure on tobacco products shed 6.4 percent to 17,424 won, the data also showed.  (Yonhap)

TV shows in China take canned laughter to the next level

TV shows in China take canned laughter to the next level

Staff Reporter

2013-10-21

China’s ‘professional audiences’ are not the focus of TV shows, but they still get paid for their appearance; as soon as the camera starts rolling, they’re on the clock. The practice of using a ‘professional audience’ in talk shows and reality shows in China, the members of which are paid to applaud, laugh or cry on cue and liven up the atmosphere of television programs is becoming increasingly common. Read more of this post

Surviving but profits suffer: Second-generation Sino-Italian entrepreneurs fighting recession

Surviving but profits suffer: Second-generation Sino-Italian entrepreneurs fighting recession

Updated: 2013-10-21 07:06

By Mariella Radaelli ( China Daily) Read more of this post

Starbucks under media fire in China for high prices

Starbucks under media fire in China for high prices

3:20am EDT

By Adam Jourdan

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O: Quote,Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has been charging customers in China higher prices than other markets, helping the company realize thick profit margins, a report by the official China Central Television (CCTV) said. The world’s largest coffee chain is the latest foreign company to come under fire from official Chinese media, which has targeted other prominent foreign names like Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and comes amid a pricing crackdown by regulators. Read more of this post

Low water rates undercut China’s desalinization effort

Low water rates undercut China’s desalinization effort

Staff Reporter

2013-10-21

Two years ago when facing water price hikes in cities and risks of water shortages, companies had been eager to invest in desalinization efforts in China, but they soon sidled off to the the sidelines, waiting for the government to unveil its core subsidy policy for desalinization, the Beijing-based Economic Observer reports. That said, some enterprises have begun to step in to the breach. Hydrochina Huadong Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of the state-run Power Construction Corporation of China (Powerchina), acquired eastern China’s biggest desalinization firm Zhoushan Liuheng Water Supply Co for 144 million yuan (US$23.6 million) in September. Read more of this post

Housewives Bet on Office Space in Shanghai FTZ; 自贸区虚拟地址注册虚热 上海大妈“团购”壳公司

Housewives Bet on Office Space in FTZ

People including housewives are renting any space they can find in the new Shanghai Free Trade Zone in the hopes of subletting it should business pick up. The office-space speculators are setting up companies doing no real business but still holding area inside places such as empty warehouses. Many have signed leases for as much as 20,000 yuan a year in the hopes that subletting to companies nets them even more. An FTZ Management Committee official said the demand for offices may not be as high as some are thinking.

自贸区虚拟地址注册虚热 上海大妈“团购”壳公司 Read more of this post

Entertainment time cut for satellite TV stations in China

Entertainment time cut for satellite TV stations

2013-10-20 23:20:39 GMT2013-10-21 07:20:39(Beijing Time)  Shanghai Daily

Satellite broadcasters in China have been told to cut back on entertainment programs, and even less of overseas programs, giving a headache for choices to station chiefs. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced that starting from next year, it will allow every satellite TV station to buy the copyrights of just one overseas program. The new order is aimed to push for domestically-produced and “morality-building programs.” Read more of this post

Chinese companies investing overseas aren’t telling anyone what they’re up to

Chinese companies investing overseas aren’t telling anyone what they’re up to

By Gwynn Guilford @sinoceros 8 hours ago

Just as it was getting harder for Chinese companies to wring profits out at home, the global financial crisis made overseas assets super-cheap. That sent waves of Chinese companies investing overseas. While China’s outbound investment totaled just $9.9 billion in 2005, it hit $42 billion in the first six months of 2013 alone, according to the Heritage Institute, a think tank. And the rate of increase is now higher than that of foreign direct investment into China. Read more of this post

China’s general aviation market not yet soaring

China’s general aviation market not yet soaring

By Xinhua writers Hu Tao, Mao Haifeng

XI’ AN, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — China’s general aviation industry has rosy prospects but its development remains slow. Such a contrast between dreams and reality has resulted in mixed feelings at the China International General Aviation Convention, which closed on Sunday in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi province. At the convention, Xia Xinghua, vice minister of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said that the country currently has 178 companies, 399 airports or vertipads and 1,610 jets registered for general aviation. And the number of jets is expected to hit 10,000 by 2020, which means an annual compound growth of 22 percent. Read more of this post

China’s Mountains of Construction Rubble

OCTOBER 20, 2013, 5:03 PM

China’s Mountains of Construction Rubble

By AUSTIN RAMZY

The demolition of old structures to clear way for urban development in China has some well-known consequences, notably the violence associated with forcibly removing people from their homes. But in recent years, the country has been increasingly faced with another unwelcome byproduct of the drive to tear down and rebuild: mountains of construction debris. Read more of this post

China’s Arms Industry Makes Global Inroads

October 20, 2013

China’s Arms Industry Makes Global Inroads

By EDWARD WONG and NICOLA CLARK

BEIJING — From the moment Turkey announced plans two years ago to acquire a long-range missile defense system, the multibillion-dollar contract from a key NATO member appeared to be an American company’s to lose. For years, Turkey’s military had relied on NATO-supplied Patriot missiles, built by the American companies Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, to defend its skies, and the system was fully compatible with the air-defense platforms operated by other members of the alliance. Read more of this post

China Gamblers Lured From Macau Seen Reviving Queensland: Retail

China Gamblers Lured From Macau Seen Reviving Queensland: Retail

Sandwiched by forested hills and the Great Barrier Reef, the town of Cairns and its surrounding region are enduring a tourist slump. More than a third of the 3,892 hotel rooms in the tropical Australian getaway were empty in the three months through June. Hong Kong investor Tony Fung has plans to reverse that with a A$4.2 billion ($4 billion) casino resort, complete with artificial lagoon, 18-hole golf course and 25,000-seat arena. The complex will almost double the number of hotel rooms in a region where oversupply has fueled an 18 percent slump in overnight rates since 2007. Read more of this post

Beijing’s programme to build 36m affordable homes is failing to cool the red-hot property market

October 20, 2013 5:17 pm

China: A place to call home

By Simon Rabinovitch

Beijing’s programme to build 36m affordable homes is failing to cool the red-hot property market. They never saw him coming: the man with the bag of crabs. Donning large aviator sunglasses, he strode into the property fair in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjingand calmly launched his protest. He plucked out six crabs on rope leashes, each with tags – “high housing prices” and “high land prices” – tied to their backs. His accomplice unfurled a large banner that asked: “When will housing prices stop going wild?” The crabs crawled all over it, a scuttling metaphor for Chinese property developers. Read more of this post

CCTV: Chinese pay higher price for Starbucks coffee

CCTV: Chinese pay higher price for Starbucks coffee

By Ding Yining | October 21, 2013, Monday |  PRINT EDITION

Labelling them a “luxury in coffee,” a China Central Television report yesterday said Starbucks coffee and mugs were more expensive in China than in London, Chicago and Mumbai. A cup of 354 milliliters of Latte coffee costs 27 yuan (US$4.4) in China as compared to only 19.98 yuan in Chicago, 14.6 yuan in Mumbai and 24.25 yuan in London, the CCTV report said. Read more of this post

Changing Climate Will Cost East Asia: ADB estimates China, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia together to pay $23 billion annually in the years to 2050 to “climate-proof” their infrastructure to cope with changing weather patterns

October 21, 2013, 8:30 AM

Changing Climate Will Cost East Asia

At first glance, the landlocked nation of Mongolia appears particularly well-positioned to withstand rising sea levels and other effects of global climate change. Yet, the changes in climate could still slap the rugged, sparsely populated nation with some of the stiffest unexpected costs in the region. This is one of the findings in a new report from the Manila-headquartered Asian Development Bank. The 197-page report estimates that four Asian nations – China, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia – together can expect to pay $23 billion annually in the years to 2050 to “climate-proof” their infrastructure to cope with changing weather patterns. Read more of this post

Hutchison Considers Retail IPO; Deal Would Follow Scrapped Plan to Sell Supermarket Chain

Hutchison Considers Retail IPO

Deal Would Follow Scrapped Plan to Sell Supermarket Chain

PRUDENCE HO

Oct. 20, 2013 2:06 p.m. ET

HONG KONG—Asia’s richest man could launch one of the world’s biggest recent IPOs, after he failed to get the price he wanted to sell his Hong Kong supermarket chain and said he is considering a deal for his global retail business. Li Ka-shing‘s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. 0013.HK -2.79% is considering a plan for an initial public offering of stock of its A.S. Watson & Co. unit, a retailer with 11,093 stores that sell things as diverse as aspirin, Bordeaux wine and Apple Inc. iPods in 33 countries. A.S. Watson—which operates Superdrug in the U.K., Kruidvat in the Netherlands and Belgium, and Watson’s and ParknShop in Asia—had first-half sales of 75.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$9.8 billion). Read more of this post

Li’s rumoured Hong Kong asset sales keep business community guessing

Last updated: October 21, 2013 5:58 am

Li’s rumoured Hong Kong asset sales keep business community guessing

By Paul J Davies and Demetri Sevastopulo

Li Ka-shing can still create waves in Hong Kong. The octogenarian one-time “superman” of Asia’s tycoon elite might have lost some of his political clout on the island, but his business decisions are watched as closely as ever and pored over in Hong Kong for their greater significance. A string of sales efforts are behind the latest bout of speculation that Asia’s richest man is getting out of the island’s economy. Power Assets, a sub-company of his Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate, is spinning out its Hong Kong electricity supply business in a listing valued at up to $5bn. His property empire, Cheung Kong, has sold the Kingswood Ginza shopping mall in the new territories. Read more of this post

HK retirement protection scheme MPF flops, claim those marching for new deal

MPF flops, claim those marching for new deal
Monday, October 21, 2013
About 40 unionists went on the march yesterday to demand a comprehensive retirement protection scheme. Members of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions marched from Hoi Fu Centre in Admiralty to the government headquarters at Tamar. In urging the introduction of retirement protection, they called for the abolition of the Mandatory Provident Fund Scheme mechanism whereby employers’ MPF contributions are used to offset long service and severance payments. Read more of this post

“Father of the red chips” Francis Leung Pak-to is leading animation company Imagi to tap into the education business

Imagi sets sights on education sector
Grace Cao
Monday, October 21, 2013
“Father of the red chips” Francis Leung Pak-to is leading Imagi International Holdings (0585) to tap into the education business by making use of HK$634.2 million received from a substantial sale. The firm announced yesterday it will tap the education sector in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland, by developing 180 to 220 episodes of a film series with a new animated character it will develop in the next two years. Read more of this post

Time to Can Any Buying of Silgan; Company Appears Vulnerable as People Lose Taste for Food in Cans; Volumes have fallen by about 1% each year over the past decade with consumers buying more fresh food

Time to Can Any Buying of Silgan

Company Appears Vulnerable as People Lose Taste for Food in Cans

JOHN JANNARONE 

Oct. 20, 2013 8:48 p.m. ET

Always popular, will SpaghettiOs outlive the metal cans they come in? The question came up recently when Campbell Soup, CPB -0.10% which makes SpaghettiOs, teamed up with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters GMCR +3.60% to offer “fresh brewed soup” in single-serve plastic cups. These could offer a simpler heating method than the stovetop or microwaving. Whether that works out or not, the food-can industry is struggling. Volumes have fallen by about 1% each year over the past decade, says the Can Manufacturers Institute. Headwinds include weak demand for soup and consumers buying more fresh food. Read more of this post

Luxury Stocks Lose Favor as Confidence Holds: EcoPulse

Luxury Stocks Lose Favor as Confidence Holds: EcoPulse

U.S. upscale retail stocks have fallen out of favor with investors even though high-income Americans are generally positive about the economic outlook. Shares of Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) have lagged behind the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index by about 12 percentage points since July 1, while Ralph Lauren Corp. has trailed the benchmark index by almost 14 percentage points. As these stocks have weakened, the S&P 500 has rallied 8 percent, closing at a record high Oct. 18. Read more of this post

Cheaper Sugar Sends Candy Makers Abroad; Price Squeeze in U.S. Is Sticky for Confectioners

Cheaper Sugar Sends Candy Makers Abroad

Price Squeeze in U.S. Is Sticky for Confectioners

ALEXANDRA WEXLER

Oct. 20, 2013 11:00 p.m. ET

Despite a prolonged slide in domestic sugar prices, U.S. candy makers are expanding production in other countries as federal price supports and a global glut of the sweet stuff give an ever-greater advantage to foreign rivals. A 50% drop in U.S. sugar prices in the last two years hasn’t been enough to eliminate problems from a longtime price gap between domestic and foreign sugar. On Friday, the U.S. sugar contract in the futures market settled at 22.28 cents a pound, or 14% higher than the benchmark global price. Read more of this post

Sons of former PMs in the limelight in Asia

Updated: Sunday October 20, 2013 MYT 2:43:16 PM

Sons of former PMs in the limelight

There was a great deal of excitement at Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s dazzling win as the top Umno vice-president but it was the two sons of two former Prime Ministers who provided the thrilling finish.
DATUK Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was the man of the moment last night. There was an incredible energy around the top Umno vice-president when he arrived at the fifth floor of the PWTC at about 11pm. Everyone loves a winner and he was swamped by supporters and the media as he emerged from the lift. Zahid’s dazzling win at this prestigious level in the Umno hierarchy means that he is now one of the most powerful figures in the party. The win is not just about enhancing his status in the party but it is also an acknowledgement of the Home Minister’s tough approach on crime and security and his unapologetic defence of Malay and religious issues. Read more of this post