Opportunity glimmers through China’s toxic smog

Opportunity glimmers through China’s toxic smog

Sun, Dec 29 2013

By Adam Jourdan

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – As China’s smog levels crept past record highs in early December, the phone lines at pollution-busting kit maker Broad Group lit up with Chinese customers worried about hazardous pollution levels that have gripped China this year. Read more of this post

Chinese state firms looking malnourished in 2013: report

Chinese state firms looking malnourished in 2013: report

Staff Reporter

2014-01-01

Among the 100 Chinese companies whose market value shrunk the most in 2013, 80% are state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Of this figure, 38 are central government-owned enterprises and suffered a total value erosion of 1.3 trillion yuan (US$215 billion), while the combined market value of 42 local state-owned businesses fell by 741.2 billion yuan (US$122 billion). Read more of this post

Chinese recycling tycoon Chen Guangbiao says he wants to buy New York Times; “There’s nothing that can’t be bought for the right price”

Chinese recycling tycoon says he wants to buy New York Times

12:12pm EST

By Megha Rajagopalan

BEIJING (Reuters) – An eccentric Chinese recycling magnate said on Tuesday he was preparing to open negotiations to buy the New York Times Co. Chen Guangbiao, a well-known philanthropist, is something of a celebrity in China. During a particularly murky bout of pollution in January, the ebullient and tireless self-promoter handed out free cans of “fresh air. Read more of this post

China’s top three producers of hepatitis B vaccine have failed to obtain the government’s authorization to manufacture new products this year, which may cause a shortage in the hepatitis B vaccine market,

Top vaccine firms fail to get permit

Global Times | Chen Tian
Published on January 01, 2014 23:43

China’s top three producers of hepatitis B vaccine have failed to obtain the government’s authorization to manufacture new products this year, which may cause a shortage in the hepatitis B vaccine market, analysts said Wednesday. 

Read more of this post

China’s Tianjin to Begin Restricting Car Population, Xinhua Says

China’s Tianjin to Begin Restricting Car Population, Xinhua Says

China’s northern Tianjin municipality will begin restricting its car population next year to control traffic congestion and air pollution, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Read more of this post

China’s Communist Party is “with you along the way”—that’s the catchphrase from a new advertisement for the party

Jan 2, 2014

You’re in Good Hands With the Communist Party

China’s Communist Party is “with you along the way”—that’s the catchphrase from a new advertisement for the party.

In a three-minute video that mysteriously appeared on the Internet in recent days, the Communist Party appears to be embarking on a fresh advertising campaign. The pitch: the party as your valuable partner. Read more of this post

China’s Banks Adopt ‘Living Wills’ to Plan for Less Predictable Future and to provide a resolution plan to help regulators wind up a failing bank

Jan 1, 2014

China’s Banks Adopt ‘Living Wills’ to Plan for Less Predictable Future

China’s banks are starting to look to the hereafter.

The idea of a living will, sometimes likened to a near-death patient preparing for the inevitable, is to provide a resolution plan to help regulators wind up a failing bank—or bring it back to healthy operation. Read more of this post

Cars or coal? Scientists split over main culprit of Beijing’s air pollution

Cars or coal? Scientists split over main culprit of Beijing’s air pollution

Wednesday, 01 January, 2014, 12:52pm

Vanessa Piaovanessa.piao@scmp.com

As China enters 2014 reeling from one of the worst polluted winters in recent years, experts from two major research institutes have openly disagreed over what is the main culprit behind the capital city’s dismal air pollution. Read more of this post

China trusts bring contrasting fortunes

China trusts bring contrasting fortunes

By Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai

Jilin Trust and Ping An Trust both operate in the shadows of the Chinese financial system, providing loans to borrowers deemed too risky by banks, but that is where the similarities end. Read more of this post

China Moves Slowly Toward State-Sector Overhaul

Dec 31, 2013

China Moves Slowly Toward State-Sector Overhaul

This post originally appeared on Real Time Economics.

China’s Communist Party wound up a key policy meeting last month, unveiling a raft of economic reforms and promising to give a “decisive role” to market forces. It said little about plans for the often inefficient state sector, and that led many analysts to conclude that overhauling state companies was not a priority. Powerful vested interests appeared to have  successfully defended their turf. Read more of this post

China Halts Imports Of Pfizer Medication Diflucan; China Increasing Scrutiny of Pharmaceutical Industry

China Halts Imports Of Pfizer Medication Diflucan

China Increasing Scrutiny of Pharmaceutical Industry

LAURIE BURKITT

Dec. 31, 2013 7:56 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s drug watchdog halted imports of a medication from drug giant PfizerInc., PFE -0.20% citing a late application for the drug—the latest incident marking increased Chinese scrutiny of the pharmaceutical industry. Read more of this post

China gives local governments go-ahead to roll over debt

January 2, 2014 6:05 am

China gives local governments go-ahead to roll over debt

By Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai

Faced with a mountain of maturing loans this year, China has given local governments the go-ahead to issue bonds as a way of rolling over their debt to avoid defaults. Read more of this post

China cracks down on loathed traffic passes carrying official privileges

China cracks down on loathed traffic passes carrying official privileges

Wednesday, 01 January, 2014, 9:39am

Angela Meng

The Beijing Traffic Management Bureau will phase out permits that allow special driving privileges, such as running red lights without consequences and free parking, the Beijing Youth Daily has reported.

Read more of this post

Charles De Vaulx: We worry About Massive Misallocation of Capital In China

Charles De Vaulx: We worry About Massive Misallocation of Capital In China

Charles De Vaulx IVA Annual Report (letter to shareholders).

Dear Shareholder,

First and foremost, we are proud and honored that we celebrated the five year anniversary of your IVA Funds at the close of this past quarter. As we explained in a recent newsletter (“Five Years in Review” October 2013, available on our website), our ability to protect on the downside was a large contributor to both our absolute and relative outperformance over this five-year period. Overall good stock picking equally played a significant part in achieving our goals. We are also privileged to work with a great team, both our investment team where we are helped by ten analysts and four traders, as well as our colleagues who support our overall business in operations, compliance, accounting, sales and marketing, human resources and technology. As for our clients who have entrusted their capital with our stewardship, we thank you for your support and allowing us to do what we love to do, and doing it in our idiosyncratic way. Come to think of it, we, too, are clients as the forty three of us working for International Value Advisers, LLC (“IVA”) have well north of $100 million of our own money in the Funds and other products we manage. Read more of this post

Stung by curbs, Indian iron ore companies throw in towel

Stung by curbs, Indian iron ore companies throw in towel

6:04pm EST

By Krishna N Das and Manolo Serapio Jr

Codli Village, INDIA/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Top Indian trader MMTC’s (MMTC.NS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) $80 million iron ore export terminal, ready since 2010, has never handled a cargo. Now the company wants to spend $16 million to convert the terminal to ship coal.

Bans on iron ore mining and exports in India’s top producing states of Karnataka and Goa have choked the industry so hard that MMTC is one of many firms exiting. Even if efforts to fully lift the bans make it past the many bureaucratic and legal hurdles, iron ore miners do not expect complete resumption of production until late 2014. Read more of this post

Setback for Bitcoin in India; raids at websites’ offices

Setback for Bitcoin in India; raids at websites’ offices

By Saloni

According to Enforcement Directorate of India, Buysellbitco.in and RBItco were violating Foreign Exchange Management; both Bitcoin websites have suspended services

World’s most debated virtual currency – Bitcoin, manages to make it to the headlines once again. The Directorate General of Economic Enforcement or Enforcement Directorate of India raided the offices of Buysellbit.co.in and RBItco post under the charges of violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), according to reports by Indian website Medianama. The raids were conducted by Enforcement Directorate in Ahmedabad, the capital city of North Western Indian state Gujarat. Read more of this post

India’s Retail Revelation; A year-old reform finally, slowly, starts to kick in

India’s Retail Revelation

A year-old reform finally, slowly, starts to kick in.

JOSEPH STERNBERG

Updated Jan. 1, 2014 3:16 p.m. ET

Well that was fast. Only a short 15 months after New Delhi announced its plan to open up the big-box retail industry to foreign investment, leaders have finally found their first taker. Britain’s Tesco TSCO.LN -0.93% last month unveiled a $110 million plan for a joint venture with the supermarket subsidiary of Tata to operate a string of supermarkets. And with atypical alacrity, regulators on Monday approved the deal barely two weeks after it was submitted to their consideration. A sign that India is finally (re)opened for business? Read more of this post

Can AAP Go National in 2014?

Can AAP Go National in 2014?

by Ashok Malik | Dec 30, 2013

More than serious and long-term contenders, they appear to represent the muckraker tradition that so energised American politics in the early 20th century

Is the extraordinary debut of Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi assembly election a revolt, a revolution or a flash in the pan? Can it be expanded to new geographies and states? Can it be scaled up to leave its impact on the 2014 Lok Sabha election? Is AAP’s success a function of the small constituencies and unique socio-economic conditions of Delhi—or is it a larger political phenomenon? Read more of this post

Bombay Bullion Group Bids for MCX Stake After Regulator Order

Bombay Bullion Group Bids for MCX Stake After Regulator Order

The Bombay Bullion Association, a traders’ group, plans to buy a stake in the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. after the regulator declared its founder unfit to run the nation’s biggest commodity bourse. The association plans to buy 5 percent of MCX (MCX) via a consortium led by the Universal Commodity Exchange Ltd., another Mumbai-based bourse, from Financial Technologies (India) Ltd. (FTECH), Mohit Kamboj, president of the group that represents about 1,000 jewelers and traders, said yesterday. The 5 percent MCX stake may be valued at 1.25 billion rupees ($20 million), he said. Read more of this post

Billionaire Mistry’s Wealth Swells on TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) Rally: Corporate India

Billionaire Mistry’s Wealth Swells on TCS Rally: Corporate India

Indian-origin billionaire Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry added $2.8 billion to his wealth last year, helped by a 73 percent surge in Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) that was the best performance in the S&P BSE Sensex index. Read more of this post

Beware reform hype over India stocks; State-level corruption will remain a problem after May polls

January 2, 2014 9:11 am

Beware reform hype over India stocks

By Henny Sender in Orissa

State-level corruption will remain a problem after May polls

Orissa, on the east coast of India, should be among the most prosperous of the country’s 28 states. At this time of year, fields of fragrant rice are lush and green thanks to bountiful rains. The state is blessed with abundant natural resources including rich deposits of bauxite, coal and iron ore. Nevertheless, Orissa is not doing nearly as well as it ought – like every other state in India, it has been the victim of an increasingly dysfunctional political system. Read more of this post

In their New Year’s greetings, the chairmen of major Korean conglomerates stress innovation to tackle crisis and urged their employees to prepare for another tough year by enhancing their competitiveness

2014-01-02 16:56

Chairmen stress innovation to tackle crisis

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee walks into the Hotel Shilla in Seoul, Thursday, holding hands with the hotel’s CEO and his daughter Bu-jin, to attend a New Year’s greeting ceremony; Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo walks into a hall to attend a New Year’s greeting ceremony at the group’s headquarters in Yangje-dong, southern Seoul, Thursday.

Kim Tae-jong

In their New Year’s greetings Thursday, the chairmen of major conglomerates urged their employees to prepare for another tough year by enhancing their competitiveness. Read more of this post

South Korea exchange rushes to implement ‘kill switch’ designed to minimise the fallout from trading algorithms going wrong after a local broker was brought to the brink of bankruptcy by erroneous electronic trades this month

December 30, 2013 12:25 pm

South Korea exchange rushes to implement ‘kill switch’

By Song Jung-a in Seoul and Jeremy Grant in Singapore

South Korea’s exchange operator, Korea Exchange (KRX), is rushing to implement a “kill switch” system designed to minimise the fallout from trading algorithms going wrong after a local broker was brought to the brink of bankruptcy by erroneous electronic trades this month. Read more of this post

So far, Gangnam tourist site a flop

So far, Gangnam tourist site a flop

Poor promotion and limited scope means venue gets few visitors

Jan 01,2014

BY PARK EUN-JEE [ejpark@joongang.co.kr]

When Psy’s infectious hit “Gangnam Style” garnered worldwide acclaim last year, Korean officials were eager to capitalize on the opportunity, using it to promote the country’s national brand and boost tourism in Seoul’s Gangnam District.  Read more of this post

Korean companies are rolling up their sleeves for a battle to minimize the impact of a weak yen

2014-01-01 18:04

Firms on alert over weak yen

Hyundai, Samsung diversify settlement currencies, increase overseas production
By Choi Kyong-ae
Korean companies are rolling up their sleeves for a battle to minimize the impact of a weak yen.
For Korea’s export-dependent economy, the fall of the yen is already dealing a blow to major exporters such as Hyundai Motor and Samsung Electronics, analysts said, expecting automakers to bear the greatest brunt of the yen’s decline. Read more of this post

KOGAS has over $570mn in derivative losses over 3 years

KOGAS has over $570mn in derivative losses over 3 years

Shin Hyun-gyu, Chung Seok-woo

2014.01.02 17:46:11

Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) suffered almost 600 billion won ($571.1 million) losses from financial derivative transactions in the last three years. This is triggering an accusation that the company, which purchases natural gas in dollar terms overseas and brings it to South Korea, has a loophole in its foreign exchange (FX) management.  Read more of this post

Hyundai’s self-rescue plan in doubt

2014-01-02 16:52

Hyundai’s self-rescue plan in doubt

Kim Rahn
Hyundai Group’s plan to sell its core assets to secure cash is raising concerns due to uncertainties in the sales process and economic situation.
Analysts said the plan may help address the group’s liquidity shortage to some extent, but may create other problems by making key businesses unstable.
Such concerns were raised after Hyundai announced in December that it would secure over 3.3 trillion won by selling all three of its financial units ― Hyundai Securities, Hyundai Savings Bank and Hyundai Asset Management ― in a bid to avoid a liquidity crisis and lower its high debt ratio. Read more of this post

Hyundai-Kia Forecast Slowest Sales Growth in Eight Years

Hyundai-Kia Forecast Vehicle Sales of 7.86 Million Units in 2014

Hyundai Motor Co. (005380) and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. (000270) projected vehicle sales this year that trailed analysts’ estimates as a strengthening won made South Korea’s exports less competitive. Read more of this post

How South Korea Rides Out Emerging-Markets Turmoil

How South Korea Rides Out Emerging-Markets Turmoil

South Korea is one of the few emerging markets to weather the recent storms. This stability is the legacy of 60 years of forced industrialization imposed by authoritarian governments and tightly controlled monetary and fiscal policies. Read more of this post