China to maintain manufacturing supremacy

May 23rd 2014

China to maintain manufacturing supremacy

In the past three decades China has revolutionised global manufacturing. In that time 500m people have moved from its fields to its cities, creating an unprecedented mass of factory workers. China’s economy is changing, however, as wages rise and labour unrest grows. Does this mean an end to its dominance of global manufacturing? The Economist Intelligence Unit believes that new infrastructure and further productivity growth, allied to a continued supply of new urban workers, will keep China competitive, despite several new trends in supply chains. Read more of this post

PCAOB Cracks Down on Fraud; A new PCAOB standard will require auditors to probe more deeply into related-party deals, unusual transactions and executive pay.

June 11, 2014

CFO.com | US

PCAOB Cracks Down on Fraud

A new PCAOB standard will require auditors to probe more deeply into related-party deals, unusual transactions and executive pay.

David M. Katz

Bottom of Form

Citing “decades of financial reporting frauds,” the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board yesterday issued new rules aimed at tightening auditor scrutiny of corporate related-party deals, “significant unusual transactions,” and executive compensation. Read more of this post

Political meddling is at the root of India’s power problems

Political meddling is at the root of India’s power problems: Kemp

Tue, Jun 10 2014

By John Kemp

LONDON (Reuters) – (John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)

For decades, India’s power engineers had a dream: “One Nation. One Grid. One Frequency.”

At the start of this year, that vision was realised. India finally has a nationwide power system stretching from Tamil Nadu in the south to Kashmir in the north, Gujarat in the west to Nagaland in the east. Read more of this post

Revealed: Asian slave labour producing prawns for supermarkets in US, UK

Revealed: Asian slave labour producing prawns for supermarkets in US, UK

Thai ‘ghost ships’ that enslave, brutalise and even kill workers are linked to global shrimp supply chain, Guardian investigation discovers
• Trafficked into slavery on Thai trawlers to catch food for prawns 
• Thailand’s seafood industry: state-sanctioned slavery?
Kate Hodal, Chris Kelly in Songkhla and Felicity Lawrence

The Guardian, Tuesday 10 June 2014 12.05 BST

Slaves forced to work for no pay for years at a time under threat of extreme violence are being used in Asia in the production of seafoodsold by major US, British and other European retailers, the Guardian can reveal.

A six-month investigation has established that large numbers of men bought and sold like animals and held against their will on fishing boats off Thailand are integral to the production of prawns (commonly called shrimp in the US) sold in leading supermarkets around the world, including the top four global retailers: Walmart, Carrefour, Costco andTesco. Read more of this post

More Than 1 in 5 Homes in Chinese Cities Are Empty, Survey Says; Southwestern University of Finance and Economics Analysis Finds 49 Million Sold but Vacant Units

More Than 1 in 5 Homes in Chinese Cities Are Empty, Survey Says

Southwestern University of Finance and Economics Analysis Finds 49 Million Sold but Vacant Units

ESTHER FUNG

June 11, 2014 7:01 a.m. ET

SHANGHAI—More than one in five homes in China’s urban areas is vacant, and a current housing-price correction is putting additional pressure on the owners of such empty properties, according to a nationwide survey by researchers from China’s Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Read more of this post

PCAOB Adopts Standard on Auditing Related-Party Transactions

PCAOB Adopts Standard on Auditing Related-Party Transactions

WASHINGTON, D.C. (JUNE 10, 2014)

BY MICHAEL COHN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ACCOUNTINGTODAY.COM

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board adopted a new auditing standard Tuesday, along with amendments to other auditing standards, to require auditors to pay more attention to three critical areas of the audit: related-party transactions, significant unusual transactions, and a company’s financial relationships and transactions with its executive officers. Read more of this post

Asia’s new generation of billionaires drive hard bargain with private banks

June 9, 2014 8:18 pm

Asia’s new generation of billionaires drive hard bargain with private banks

By Jeremy Grant

How do you meet a billionaire?

For the many banks and wealth managers chasing business from Asia’s ultra-wealthy, finding the answer to that question makes the difference between managing money for the region’s biggest business tycoons and merely aspiring to do so.

While the global population of billionaires – or ultra-high net worth individuals, in wealth managers’ jargon – has risen 60 per cent since 2009, say Singapore-based consultancy Wealth-X and UBS, the Swiss bank, the number in Asia has grown faster than anywhere else. Read more of this post

China probe sparks metals stocks scramble

June 10, 2014 11:21 am

China probe sparks metals stocks scramble

By Lucy Hornby

Metals traders are rushing to secure copper and aluminium stocks following a financing probe in the northeast Chinese port of Qingdao, with at least one company asking courts to freeze inventory while traders move metal to other ports to prevent possible seizure.

CITIC Resources, an arm of Chinese banking, trading and metals conglomerate CITIC Group, said on Tuesday it had asked courts in Qingdao to secure alumina – the raw material for aluminium – and copper it had stored at Qingdao Port. Read more of this post

Flood of cash needs to irrigate businesses

June 10, 2014 3:52 pm

Flood of cash needs to irrigate businesses

By Luke Johnson

Is there just too much capital? Asset prices are at record highs – be it London property or stock market indices – yet still the surpluses rise. What is happening?

Eighteen months ago, Bain published an insightful document called A World Awash With Money . It stated that “financial assets are nearly ten times the value of the global output of all goods and services”. In other words, the financial economy has swamped the real economy. Bain believes this will continue – as China, India and other emerging markets grow, it estimates total global capital will increase by a further $300tn by 2020, or 50 per cent from current levels. Read more of this post

Conflict looms in ‘Asia’s cauldron’; China’s disputes with neighbours are becoming dangerous

June 10, 2014 7:05 pm

Conflict looms in ‘Asia’s cauldron’

China’s disputes with neighbours are becoming dangerous

Maritime disputes between China and its neighbours have reached new levels of tension. The South China Sea, where Beijing has active disputes with both Hanoi and Manila, has become “Asia’s cauldron” in the phrase of Robert Kaplan. In the East China Sea, a stand-off with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands has become especially poisonous. Thepotential for miscalculation is high. Japanese and Chinese aircraft regularly fly too close to each other for comfort. Last month, Vietnamese fishermen had to be rescued when their boat sank after clashing with a Chinese vessel. Read more of this post

Ferrari drops agent as China’s luxury car market shrinks; With its sales in China dropping by one third to 554 cars in 2013, Ferrari has recently terminated a franchise agreement with a Chinese agent

Ferrari drops agent as China’s luxury car market shrinks

Staff Reporter

2014-06-11

With its sales in China dropping by one third to 554 cars in 2013, Ferrari has recently terminated a franchise agreement with a Chinese agent which owns two stores, out of more than 20 in the nation, a reflection of China’s shrinking luxury car market, reports the Chinese-language Beijing Business Today.

A company source told the paper that Ferrari decide to back out of the franchise following allegations that the agent was also selling rival brands at the same time, but market players attributed the move to the shrinkage of China’s top luxury car market. Read more of this post

China’s LED industry: Get big or go home

China’s LED industry: Get big or go home

Staff Reporter

2014-06-11

Over 10,000 Chinese enterprises have jumped onto the LED bandwagon but up to 50% of them will be forced out in five to eight years, said Pan Wenpo, chairman of Guangzhou Guangya Frankfurt Exhibition.

Pan predicted that China’s LED industry will become increasingly concentrated, leading to the emergence of enterprises with annual sales in the billions of yuan over a five-to-eight-year period, according to Shanghai’s China Business News. He added that the industry’s annual output value will grow at an annual clip of 22%-25% and surpass 1 trillion yuan (US$160 billion) in five years, compared with 350 billion yuan (US$56 billion) in 2013. The forecast amounts to 420-430 billion yuan (US$67-$69 billion) this year, as the LED penetration rate could jump to over 80%. The industry will be dominated by enterprises with edges in branding, sales networks and technology, stressed Pan. Read more of this post

New Silk Road to build global access to Chinese culture

New Silk Road to build global access to Chinese culture

XI’AN, June 9 (Xinhua) — China should build a new Silk Road using the Internet to help integrate Chinese culture into the outside world, the vice chief of a Chinese Internet entertainment company said at the weekend.

American cartoons, such as Dreamworks’ “Kung Fu Panda” and Disney’s “Mulan,” are not true embodiments of Chinese culture, said Wang Yuyun, vice president of Perfect World.

“They are Hollywood cultural products made for viewers around the world. American producers borrowed the classic tales or images of China, and the cartoons mainly reflect American values,” she said. Read more of this post

CITIC Securities Analyst Suspended after Disclosing Drug Firm’s Stock-Incentive Compensation Plan; Zhang Mingfang put information on WeChat, prompting investors and fund managers to make quick exits from group chats

06.09.2014 16:17

CITIC Securities Analyst Suspended after Disclosing Drug Firm’s Compensation Plan

Zhang Mingfang put information on WeChat, prompting investors and fund managers to make quick exits from group chats

By staff reporters Zheng Fei and Liu Zhuozhe

(Beijing) – CITIC Securities has suspended an analyst who put information about Lizhu Medicine Group Holding Co. Ltd. on a messaging app’s group chats.

Lizhu, a medicine company listed in Shenzhen, said it will halt trading of its shares on June 9 until it releases a plan on stock-based incentive compensation for its employees. Read more of this post

The ex-chairman of fast-food chain Kungfu has lost his appeal in an embezzlement case that sources close to the company say was the result of a dispute involving family members

06.09.2014 18:54

Ex-Boss of Fast-Food Chain Loses Appeal of Embezzlement Conviction

Court upholds verdict against Cai Dabiao in case sources close to Kungfu Catering say was result of power struggle

By staff reporter Wang Jing

(Beijing) – The ex-chairman of fast-food chain Kungfu Catering Management Co. Ltd. has lost his appeal in an embezzlement case that sources close to the company say was the result of a dispute involving family members.

The Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court upheld the conviction of Cai Dabiao on June 6. The southern city’s Tianhe District Court had sentenced Cai to 14 years in prison on December 13 for misappropriation of funds and embezzlement. He will also have 1 million yuan’s worth of personal assets confiscated. Read more of this post