A Chinese multimillionaire who built himself an Egyptian pyramid and a replica of Versailles vows to construct the world’s tallest building in just six months — despite authorities preventing work due to safety concerns

Pyramid, Versailles and now Sky City

Chinese tycoon wants to build tallest building

AFP-JIJI

JAN 19, 2014

Ancient ambition: This 40-meter-tall pyramid was built by Chinese multimillionaire Zhang Yue on his corporate campus in Changsha, Hunan province. | AFP-JIJI

CHANGSHA, CHINA – A Chinese multimillionaire who built himself an Egyptian pyramid and a replica of Versailles vows to construct the world’s tallest building in just six months — despite authorities preventing work due to safety concerns. Read more of this post

Australian Bank Stock Valuations at Pre-Crisis High on Dividends

Australian Bank Stock Valuations at Pre-Crisis High on Dividends

Australia’s largest banks are trading at the most expensive levels since before the global financial crisis on bets a mortgage lending recovery will allow them to increase dividend payouts. Read more of this post

Nu Skin: Chinese lessons; Opacity of China’s rules means investors should show vigilance; Nu Skin China Probe Derails CEO’s Sevenfold Share Gain

January 19, 2014 3:45 pm

Nu Skin: Chinese lessons

Opacity of China’s rules means investors should show vigilance

AUtah-based direct marketer of cosmetics and nutritional supplements makes China its growth engine. What could go wrong? Plenty. Nu Skin Enterprises saw its market cap cut nearly in half this week after a Chinese newspaper described its sales tactics as “brainwashing”. Chinese regulators will investigate. The company, while denying impropriety, has said the review will hurt sales. A direct sales company can resemble a pyramid scheme, or be one, and it can be hard to tell the difference (ask Bill Ackman about Herbalife). But the Nu Skin story is also about the perils of doing business in China. Read more of this post

Remy Cointreau’s China Woes Continue

Remy Cointreau’s China Woes Continue

French Drinks Maker’s Sales Have Been Hit by China’s Crackdown on Gift-Giving

RUTH BENDER

Updated Jan. 21, 2014 2:53 a.m. ET

PARIS— Rémy Cointreau

SA RCO.FR +1.89% said Tuesday it doesn’t expect sales to rebound in China during the crucial Lunar New Year holidays after China’s crackdown on gift-making pushed down sales over 20% in the latest quarter. Read more of this post

Seven Chinese IPOs Halt Trading After 44 Percent Share Rally; “It’s hard to change Chinese investors’ habit of speculatively trading in new shares”

Seven Chinese IPOs Halt Trading After 44 Percent Share Rally

Seven of the eight Chinese companies that started trading in Shenzhen today were halted for a second time after gains exceeded limits set by the city’s exchange.

Shares of Zhejiang Wolwo Bio-Pharmaceutical Co. (300357), Chengdu Tianbao Heavy Industry Co., Guangdong Qtone Education Co. and four other companies were suspended from 10:30 a.m. until 2:57 p.m., three minutes before the close, after they jumped at least 44 percent from their initial public offering prices. All seven posted gains of 45 percent or more by the close. Hangzhou Sunrise Technology Co. (300360) climbed 19 percent, the only stock that wasn’t halted from trading. Read more of this post

Slew of IPOs to Test Whether New China Stocks Have Broken an Old Pattern

Slew of IPOs to Test Whether New China Stocks Have Broken an Old Pattern

Eight Chinese Stocks Will Make Their Debuts in Shenzhen Tuesday; Will They Rise, Then Fall?

Updated Jan. 20, 2014 9:13 a.m. ET

China’s securities regulator is about to find out whether changes it implemented to the application system for initial public offerings will cure offerings’ tendency to start strong and then lose steam. Read more of this post

Three Squirrels: Cute power sends China’s online shoppers nuts

Three Squirrels: Cute power sends China’s online shoppers nuts

Staff Reporter

2014-01-21

Anhui Three Squirrels E-commerce, set up in June 2012, has carved out a market share for selling nuts in China through its unique marketing and service style, selling over 300 million nuts last year, reports the China Entrepreneur magazine. Read more of this post

Xi’s close aides move into position

Xi’s close aides move into position
Mary Ma
Monday, January 20, 2014
The National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference will convene their annual meetings next month, offering more insight into Beijing’s changing politics. Read more of this post

Cocoa Has New Latin America King as Ecuador Beats Brazil

Cocoa Has New Latin America King as Ecuador Beats Brazil

Ecuador, where the fatty beans used to make chocolate have been grown since pre-Columbian times, is surpassing Brazil as Latin America’s top cocoa producer after boosting planting and running education programs for farmers. Cocoa-bean output rose 13 percent last year to 220,000 metric tons as the country is poised to become the world’s fourth-biggest producer by 2015, said Ivan Ontaneda, president of Ecuador’s National Cocoa Exporters Association, known as Anecacao. Read more of this post

Premium beer becomes the flavour favoured in Brazil’s favelas

Last updated: January 20, 2014 4:39 pm

Premium beer becomes the flavour favoured in Brazil’s favelas

By Samantha Pearson

When Marcelo Ramos opened a bar in one of Rio de Janeiro’s biggest slums selling Belgian beer for R$200 ($83) a bottle, his friends thought he had lost his mind. “They all told me: you’re crazy, you’re throwing your money away – people here are poor!”, says Mr Ramos, a 39-year-old mobile phone technician who set up the bar in his father-in-law’s garage at the end of 2012. Read more of this post

Beware day of reckoning, Tsang warns; Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah has given another stark warning on Hong Kong’s economy

Beware day of reckoning, Tsang warns
Imogene Wong
Monday, January 20, 2014

Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah has given another stark warning on Hong Kong’s economy. If expenditure growth continually surpassed increases in income, Hong Kong would be in deficit and eventually its fiscal reserves would be depleted. Read more of this post

Hong Kong, Vancouver Least Affordable Home Markets, Survey Shows; The median home price in Hong Kong rose to 14.9 times gross annual median household income from 13.5 times last year

Hong Kong, Vancouver Least Affordable Home Markets, Survey Shows

Hong Kong, Vancouver and Honolulu have the least affordable housing markets across nine nations in the Demographia International Housing Affordability survey.

The median home price in Hong Kong rose to 14.9 times gross annual median household income from 13.5 times last year, according to the 10th annual report by the Belleville, Illinois-based consulting company. Homes in Vancouver cost 10.3 times income and 9.4 times in Honolulu. Australia and New Zealand were the most unaffordable countries after Hong Kong, with home prices at 5.5 times gross income. Read more of this post

BJP’s Modi Vows to Check India Inflation, Boost Infrastructure; Modi Vows to Curb Prices While Promising India 100 Smart Cities

BJP’s Modi Vows to Check India Inflation, Boost Infrastructure

India’s opposition prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi vowed to curb Asia’s fastest inflation and improve the nation’s infrastructure, outlining his agenda for economic revival as elections loom. Read more of this post

India Said to Plan Merging Regulators After Bourse Collapse

India Said to Plan Merging Regulators After Bourse Collapse

India is planning to combine the stock and commodities market regulators after a payment crisis led to the collapse of the nation’s biggest spot exchange, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Read more of this post

ndia Political Divide Grows as Election Clouds Economic Outlook

India Political Divide Grows as Election Clouds Economic Outlook

Within the pink-walled capital of India’s largest state, Om Prakash joined thousands of people last month cheering on the Bharatiya Janata Party after it won an election seen as a stepping stone to reclaim national power.  Read more of this post

Chief minister of India’s capital spends cold night on streets in police protest

Chief minister of India’s capital spends cold night on streets in police protest

5:26am EST

By Frank Jack Daniel

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Sleeping on the pavement, conducting official duties from a parked car and calling himself an anarchist in a sit-in protest against the police, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has taken an unconventional approach to governing India’s capital. Read more of this post

Why Gandhi Heir Could Lose More Than His Throne

Why Gandhi Heir Could Lose More Than His Throne

Rahul Gandhi’s friends seem to have no more confidence in him than his enemies do. Although he is the unquestioned heir apparent of India’s storied Congress Party, and will lead its election campaign this spring, the party last week refrained from anointing him or anyone else as its official candidate for prime minister. Read more of this post

KKR’s Korean brewery win fuelled by hot soup and soju sessions; KKR, Affinity to Sell Korean Brewer to InBev for $5.8 Billion after buying for $1.8 billion in 2009

KKR’s Korean brewery win fuelled by hot soup and soju sessions

1:04am EST

By Joyce Lee and Stephen Aldred

SEOUL/HONG KONG (Reuters) – A story Oriental Brewery boss Chang In-soo often tells about his days as a soju salesman is how he and two clients once worked through 29 bottles of the traditional Korean rice liquor at a single sitting. He feels bad, he says, they didn’t manage 30. Read more of this post