ICBC Won’t Repay Troubled China Trust Product, Official Says

ICBC Won’t Repay Troubled China Trust Product, Official Says

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. is rejecting calls to bail out a troubled 3 billion-yuan ($495 million) trust product, a bank official with knowledge of the matter said, stoking concern that the nation’s first default on such high-yield investments may be looming. Read more of this post

Fewer Employees Moved to China in 2013; The heady days of people rushing to China in search of opportunity are waning.

Jan 16, 2014

Fewer Employees Moved to China in 2013

The heady days of people rushing to China in search of opportunity are waning.

At least one relocation firm has found that more people moved from China to the U.S. last year than the other way around, the first time this has happened since St. Louis-based UniGroup Relocation, which moves more than 260,000 families yearly, started compiling this data in 2006. Meanwhile, the move of household goods into China tracked by another relocation firm, Asian Tigers Mobility, fell 10% in 2013, the largest drop in more than a decade. Read more of this post

Farming cooperative turns Sichuan village into rich town

Farming cooperative turns Sichuan village into rich town

Staff Reporter

2014-01-17

The farming cooperative has found itself an exemplar in a village in southwest China’s Sichuan province. Its residents, known now as “tuhao” (nouveau riche), made 13 million yuan (US$2 million) in 2013. Read more of this post

Davos Teaches China to Ski as New Rich Lured to Slopes

Davos Teaches China to Ski as New Rich Lured to Slopes

Davos has attracted Bill Clinton, Angelina Jolie and Bill Gates. Now the Swiss Alpine village is deploying a 27-year-old Chinese ski instructor to appeal to the world’s most populous nation. Read more of this post

Credit tapering in China to continue in 2014: JP Morgan

Credit tapering in China to continue in 2014: JP Morgan

Xinhua

2014-01-17

China’s lending moderated in 2013 and the growth of broad money supply slowed, triggering forecasts that credit tapering will continue in 2014. China’s new renminbi-denominated lending stood at 8.89 trillion yuan (US$1.5 trillion) in 2013, up 687.9 billion yuan (US$113.6 billion), the central bank announced on Wednesday. Read more of this post

CPC senior adviser’s 1990 book on corruption revisited

CPC senior adviser’s 1990 book on corruption revisited

Lou Yin and Staff Reporter

2014-01-17

The website of Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao newspaper recently published a digest from a 1990 book by Wang Huning on corruption, containing insights shared by the former senior adviser to China’s leaders. Read more of this post

Could Chinese Regulators Make Bill Ackman Richer?

Could Chinese Regulators Make Bill Ackman Richer?

Dealing with regulators can be a challenge for any business. It’s especially true for companies that might be declared lawbreakers at any time.

So it’s no surprise that shares of Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. have plummeted about 37 percent since the Chinese government said that it would investigate the personal-care company on the grounds that it might be an illegal pyramid scheme. The probe comes a day after the publication of a report on the company in the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China. Read more of this post

Compounding China’s Bank-Capital Blues

Compounding China’s Bank-Capital Blues

Beijing’s Misguided Rules Prevent Fund Raising When It’s Most Needed

AARON BACK

Jan. 16, 2014 3:17 a.m. ET

Chinese banks are in capital-raising mode after gorging on aggressive lending. Outdated rules barring banks from issuing equity below book value are needlessly hindering the process. Read more of this post

CNY holidays a stressful time for single offspring

CNY holidays a stressful time for single offspring

Friday, January 17, 2014 – 14:00

Zhang Yue

China Daily/Asia News Network

A Chinese woman bought a full front-page ad in a popular Chinese-language newspaper in Melbourne on Tuesday to publish a letter asking her missing son studying in Australia to get in touch with the family. In it, she asked the young man, Peng, to come home for Chinese New Year celebrations and promised to stop trying to force him into marriage. Peng had ignored phone calls from his parents because they were pressuring him to marry, according to media reports.

The Chinese Melbourne Daily published the front-page ad with the six-line letter from mother to son on Jan 14.Written in bold characters, it read: “Peng, we have tried to reach you so many times by phone, but in vain. So maybe you will hear from us here. We hope you will come home for Lunar New Year. Dad and Mom will never again pressure you to marry. Love you, Mom.” Read more of this post

Small Turns Big in China’s Stock Market as ChiNext Values Surge

Small Turns Big in China’s Stock Market as ChiNext Values Surge

Companies in China’s benchmark index for small-capitalization stocks have never been so big.

The ChiNext Index has surged 80 percent in the past 12 months, lifting the median market value of its components to a record $1.1 billion on Jan. 15. That’s the highest ever relative to the nation’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP), which has a median value of $784 million, and the biggest among small-cap measures in the world’s 10 largest equity markets. Gauges for small companies in Brazil, Russia and India have dropped at least 10 percent during the same period. Read more of this post

Chinese Developers Face Tighter Financing, Local Curbs, S&P Says

Chinese Developers Face Tighter Financing, Local Curbs, S&P Says

Chinese developers face risks such as narrowing financing channels and more property tightening measures by local governments this year, according to Standard & Poor’s. Read more of this post

China’s Toxic Debt Doctors Prepare for Surgery; Banks and governments are gearing up to shift non-performing loans to locally controlled asset management companies

01.08.2014 17:44

China’s Toxic Debt Doctors Prepare for Surgery

Banks and governments are gearing up to shift non-performing loans to locally controlled asset management companies

By staff reporters Wu Hongyuran and Huo Kan

(Beijing) — Regulators eager to resolve China’s local government debt conundrum are setting standards for an emerging class of asset management companies (AMCs) responsible for settling bad loans without Beijing’s help. Read more of this post

China’s IPO Freeze Ends as Neway to Debut Amid Pricing Crackdown

China’s IPO Freeze Ends as Neway to Debut Amid Pricing Crackdown

Neway Valve (Suzhou) Co. (603699), a maker of industrial valves, will become the first company to start trading in China today after a freeze on initial public offerings that lasted more than 15 months. Read more of this post

China Migrant Workers Face Hardship of Separation From Children

China Migrant Workers Face Hardship of Separation From Children

Yang Wei, 26, and his wife share a small apartment in the manufacturing hub of Dongguan, in the Pearl River Delta. Every morning they bicycle a few kilometers to their jobs at two electronics components plants. To see their 6-year-old daughter they take a 17-hour train ride, followed by six more hours on three buses. She lives in mountainous Fenghuang County, Hunan, more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) to the northwest, with Yang’s 53-year-old mother. He and his wife see their daughter once every 12 months for 10 days during the Chinese New Year. Read more of this post

China bank regulator urges banks to control shadow-bank risks

China bank regulator urges banks to control shadow-bank risks

3:33am EST

By Hongmei Zhao

and Gabriel Wildau

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s banking regulator is pressuring banks to curb reliance on short-term borrowing and control risks from off-balance-sheet lending, according to a document obtained by Reuters, following two severe cash crunches in the last six months. Read more of this post

Beijing’s Corruption Crackdown Is a Boon for Bargain-Hunting Chinese; Loss of Government Business Has Hotels, Restaurants and Airlines Cutting Prices

Beijing’s Corruption Crackdown Is a Boon for Bargain-Hunting Chinese

Loss of Government Business Has Hotels, Restaurants and Airlines Cutting Prices

WEI GU

Jan. 16, 2014 10:16 a.m. ET

China’s crackdown on corruption is forcing restaurants to replace lavish banquets with parties for new babies and airlines to cut the prices for business-class seats. But the pain suffered by these businesses is a balm for frugal Chinese.

Read more of this post

Aier Eye Hospital Envisions ‘Golden Age’ For PRC Ophthalmology

AIER EYE HOSPITAL Envisions ‘Golden Age’ For PRC Ophthalmologg

Written by Andrew Vanburen (in Shenzhen)

Friday, 17 January 2014 06:30

AIER EYE HOSPITAL GROUP (SZA: 300015), the first healthcare play to go public in China, saw its April-September revenue rise by nearly a quarter to 1.5 billion yuan.

The ophthalmological chain with nearly 50 hospitals to its name envisions even stronger growth going forward on a robust expansion strategy and a strong brand image.
Aier is not only China’s top dedicated ophthalmology group, but is also the world’s largest ophthalmological hospital chain.
“Mainland China’s medical industry is somewhat special. Read more of this post

Actavis to Quit China as Trouble Seen for Little Profit

Actavis to Quit China as Trouble Seen for Little Profit

Actavis Plc (ACT), the second-biggest generic drugmaker by market capitalization, said it will end its presence in China because of the difficult business climate. Read more of this post

Japan’s Coming “Wage Surprise”

Shinzo Abe is Prime Minister of Japan.

JAN 6, 2014

Japan’s Coming “Wage Surprise”

TOKYO – The year 2013 saw the Japanese economy turn the corner on two decades of stagnation. And the future will become even brighter with the appearance of what we are calling the “wage surprise.” Read more of this post

Rahul Gandhi and India: Watery sunrise; The problems of Congress’s front man

Rahul Gandhi and India: Watery sunrise; The problems of Congress’s front man

Jan 18th 2014 | DELHI | From the print edition

IT IS an irony of Indian politics that the man who could have taken over as prime minister at any point in the past five years has never wanted the job. Rahul Gandhi is the 43-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has dominated the ruling Congress party for most of a century. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, the party president, is the political boss of the deferential prime minister, Manmohan Singh. Read more of this post

Rahul Gandhi Won’t Be Congress Party’s Prime Minister Candidate

Rahul Gandhi Won’t Be Congress Party’s Prime Minister Candidate

Rahul Gandhi will lead the campaign of India’s ruling Congress party in national elections due to be held by May, though the scion of the country’s most famous political family won’t be its formal prime minister candidate, a party spokesman said. Read more of this post

Indian business takes aim at AAP’s economic policies

January 16, 2014 1:46 pm

Indian business takes aim at AAP’s economic policies

By Victor Mallet in New Delhi

India’s upstart Aam Aadmi party, the champion of the “common man” propelled unexpectedly into power in Delhi by December’s state election, has enchanted millions of voters from all walks of life with its single-minded campaign against corruption. Read more of this post

Shenzhen Overtakes Hong Kong as Third Busiest Container Port

Shenzhen Overtakes Hong Kong as Third Busiest Container Port

China’s Shenzhen surpassed Hong Kong to become the world’s third-busiest container port for the first time last year, as a strike diverted ships away from the former British colony. Terminals in Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, handled 23.3 million twenty-foot equivalent containers last year, outpacing Hong Kong’s 22.3 million in the same period, data from the Transport Commission of Shenzhen Municipality and Hong Kong Port Development Council show. Port workers at billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Hongkong International Terminals Ltd. went on a 40-day strike in late March last year, demanding higher wages. Evergreen Marine Corp. Taiwan Ltd. and Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. were among shipping lines that diverted vessels to other ports. Shanghai and Singapore remain the world’s two biggest container ports.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Butt in Hong Kong at rbutt4@bloomberg.net

Spain’s next Zara? Fashion label Desigual speeds global growth

Spain’s next Zara? Fashion label Desigual speeds global growth

Thu, Jan 16 2014

By Emma Thomasson

BERLIN (Reuters) – Spanish fashion label Desigual is accelerating its expansion in Europe and emerging markets, seeking to ride predictions of fast growth in women’s apparel while also taking the colorful brand into new areas like perfume and shoes. Read more of this post

In Retail, Culture Trumps Technology

January 16, 2014, 8:42 PM ET

In Retail, Culture Trumps Technology

MICHAEL HICKINS

We’ve all heard the pitch for over a decade: technology will help retailers send contextually relevant marketing messages to mobile devices of consumers wandering around malls and shopping districts. But despite advances in telecommunications infrastructure and data collection and analysis, there’s little proof that any of this actually sells so much as an extra pair of jeans. Read more of this post

I Can’t Believe It’s Butter in My Unilever Rama Spread

I Can’t Believe It’s Butter in My Unilever Rama Spread

Paul Polman, the head of margarine maker Unilever (UNA), has criticized butter in the past, saying the dairy fat “kills.” With sales of the company’s spreads sagging, he is now embracing it. Read more of this post

Precious Metals Manipulation Worse Than Libor Scandal, German Regulator Says

Precious Metals Manipulation Worse Than Libor Scandal, German Regulator Says

Tyler Durden on 01/16/2014 18:39 -0500

Remember when banks were exposed manipulating virtually everything except precious metals, because obviously nobody ever manipulates the price of gold and silver? After all, the biggest “conspiracy theory” of all is that crazy gold bugs blame every move against them on some vile manipulator. It may be time to shift yet another conspiracy “theory” into the “fact” bin, thanks to Elke Koenig, the president of Germany’s top financial regulator, Bafin, which apparently is not as corrupt, complicit and clueless as its US equivalent, and who said that in addition to currency rates, manipulation of precious metals “is worse than the Libor-rigging scandal.” Hear that Bart Chilton and friends from the CFTC? Read more of this post

Miners Chopping $10 Billion Search Bodes Next Price Boom

Miners Chopping $10 Billion Search Bodes Next Price Boom

Mining companies are extending massive cuts in exploration budgets for a second year, setting up the next price boom as China continues its relentless pursuit of metals and energy. Read more of this post

Aluminium premiums hit record high on tight physical market

Last updated: January 16, 2014 12:38 pm

Aluminium premiums hit record high on tight physical market

By Neil Hume, Commodities Editor

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the aluminium market but industrial consumers of the metal have much in common with the seafarer. To paraphrase Samuel Coleridge, there’s “metal, metal all around but not a tonne to buy”. Read more of this post