Even Star Johansson Can’t Help SodaStream as Stock Sinks 26%; SodaStream benefits from the so-called razor-blade model of retailing where profits rely on customers repeatedly buying complementary products such as carbonation cannister

Even Star Johansson Can’t Help SodaStream as Stock Sinks 26%

A year ago, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) climbed to a six-month high in New York after unveiling plans for its debut Super Bowl commercial. No such luck this year. The home-soda machine maker plunged 26 percent in its first day of trading after saying it tapped Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson for a spot during the football game as investors focused on the company’s worse-than-forecast earnings. Read more of this post

Consumer testing bodies fight to stay influential; The digital age poses a challenge to the likes of Germany’s mighty Stiftung Warentest

January 13, 2014 4:35 pm

Consumer testing bodies fight to stay influential

By Rose Jacobs

In a country passionate about chocolate and proud of its domestic brands, the news for Ritter Sport last November was not good. The confectioner, whose square chocolate bars are familiar internationally, had received a grade of “defective” from Germany’s consumer-product testing agency, Stiftung Warentest. Read more of this post

Chains Infiltrate European Shopping Meccas; Influx of International Retailers Sparks Concern About Direction of the Continent’s Fashion Hot Spots

Chains Infiltrate European Shopping Meccas

Influx of International Retailers Sparks Concern About Direction of the Continent’s Fashion Hot Spots

ALESSIA PIROLO

Jan. 14, 2014 2:17 p.m. ET

With fashion weeks set to kick off from Milan to Berlin, fashionistas descending on stores across Europe might find an extraordinarily similar array of products, whether they are on London’s Oxford Street, Paris’s Champs-Élysées or Milan’s Via Montenapoleone. That is because more international retail chains, such as Zara, Tommy Hilfiger andStarbucks, SBUX +0.45% are opening outlets in these markets. Read more of this post

5 Things That Led To The Decline Of Lululemon

5 Things That Led To The Decline Of Lululemon

ASHLEY LUTZ

JAN. 13, 2014, 11:03 AM 29,318 17

Lululemon shares are tumbling after the company said revenue would be lower than expected. While the crash took some by surprise, insiders have seen a Lululemon implosion coming for a long time.  Last year, equity firm The Oxen Group called Lululemon’s shares “strongly overvalued.” Popular blogger LuluAddict wrote that former CEO Christine Day had ruined “everything special” about the retailer. There’s a lot going wrong at Lululemon, but here are a few major factors that led to the current predicament.  Read more of this post

Record surge in US aluminium premiums rattles end-users

Updated: Wednesday January 15, 2014 MYT 10:43:56 AM

Record surge in US aluminium premiums rattles end-users

FORT LAUDERDALE: The unprecedented surge in US aluminum premiums to record highs has renewed concerns about the dwindling supplies and rising costs of a key raw material for automotive and beverage can makers, even as the market struggles with big stockpiles. Read more of this post

Gold mining: Squandered opportunity; Investor demands for restructuring and an end to the old approach of sprawling expansion are growing

January 14, 2014 5:57 pm

Gold mining: Squandered opportunity

By James Wilson

Investor demands for restructuring and an end to the old approach of sprawling expansion are growing

In the vast open pit at Goldstrike, electric shovels 20 metres tall crunch easily through the rock of northern Nevada. Three scoops fill a truck that hauls off 300 tonnes of gold-bearing ore, while underground teams nearby bore richer deposits at 25 metres a day. Read more of this post

Lessons behind L’Oréal’s about-face; China redraws the line between luxury, premium, affordable and mass market weekly

January 13, 2014 1:07 pm

Lessons behind L’Oréal’s about-face

By Andrew Hill

China redraws the line between luxury, premium, affordable and mass market weekly

When L’Oréal said last week it would stop selling Garnier products in China, many outsiders assumed the French cosmetics group was joining a wholesale retreat by big western brands, led by Revlon of the US, which last month closed all its operations in mainland China, eliminating 1,100 jobs, including those of 940 beauty advisers. It all looked pretty ugly. Read more of this post

China’s shadow banking loans leap

January 15, 2014 5:55 am

China’s shadow banking loans leap

By Tom Mitchell in Beijing

The rise of China’s shadow banking sector has been thrown into sharp relief by data from the central bank showing that it now accounts for nearly one third of aggregate financing in the world’s second biggest economy. Read more of this post

Xi’s top challenge in 2014: Resolving an identity crisis?

Xi’s top challenge in 2014: Resolving an identity crisis?

At first glance, Chinese President Xi Jinping enters 2014 as the country’s most powerful and popular leader in recent memory.

BY –

4 HOURS 7 MIN AGO

At first glance, Chinese President Xi Jinping enters 2014 as the country’s most powerful and popular leader in recent memory. A year into his expected decade-long reign, he has amassed more titles than his two immediate predecessors. Besides heading the ruling Communist Party as well as the 1.5-million strong military and the state, Mr Xi also sits atop two newly created entities with ultimate authority on the most important issues facing the government: A national security council and a leadership group that decides on the course of the country’s “overall reform”. Read more of this post

The Chinese Have the Necessary Vision’; Twenty years ago, China exported six cars. Last year it exported a million. Marketing expert Nirmalya Kumar speaks about the impending global ascent of brands from emerging economies

01/08/2014 04:37 PM

Brand Expert Interview

‘The Chinese Have the Necessary Vision’

Twenty years ago, China exported six cars. Last year it exported a million. Marketing expert Nirmalya Kumar speaks to SPIEGEL about the impending global ascent of brands from emerging economies.

SPIEGEL: Professor Kumar, in your recent book, you predict the breakout of future world brands from emerging markets, particularly from China. Are you not a bit premature? Even in Asia, the newly rich prefer Western brand icons like Apple or Armani to cheap local labels. Read more of this post

Tech Upstarts Paying 17 Times Interest Upset China Banks

Tech Upstarts Paying 17 Times Interest Upset China Banks

Rebecca Ning, along with 43 million other Chinese, has found a way to make about 6 percent annually, or 17 times her usual interest rate, by tapping her phone and using technology that’s disrupting China’s banking status quo. Read more of this post

Stop the Chinese frauds, an additional auditor option

Stop the frauds, an additional auditor option

Dan joined FT Alphaville in September 2013 after stints on Lex and as the FT’s Investment Correspondent in New York. Send him ideas or call him up.

| Jan 14 13:50 | 2 comments | Share

How might Chinese fraudsters be stopped? SkyTides, an investment firm started by a former auditor, has a suggestion: Special Attestation Reports. The reason is that auditors live by two words: material and reasonable. So while they need to keep an eye out for fraudulent-type behavior, it is not their central preoccupation. Read more of this post

Regulators at Odds on Reining In China’s Shadow Lending; PBOC Sees the Banking Commission as Unwilling to Get Tough

Regulators at Odds on Reining In China’s Shadow Lending

PBOC Sees the Banking Commission as Unwilling to Get Tough

LINGLING WEI And BOB DAVIS

Jan. 14, 2014 12:48 p.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s effort to rein in runaway credit is being hampered by infighting between the central bank and the nation’s banking regulator, say officials at both institutions, with the two agencies sparring especially over how hard to press so-called shadow bankers. Read more of this post

No Quick Fix for China’s Air Quality

No Quick Fix for China’s Air Quality

ANDREW BROWNE

Jan. 14, 2014 5:02 a.m. ET

TANGSHAN, China—To control the pollution that’s choking Beijing, demolition squads recently swooped down on this industrial city located two hours away by car and crippled a batch of coal-burning steel works. Read more of this post

How Xi Can Help China Stop Smoking

How Xi Can Help China Stop Smoking

Skeptics are waiting for Chinese President Xi Jinping to prove he’s serious about economic reform — perhaps by shuttering one of the country’s big, loss-making state enterprises. In fact, if Xi really wants to transform China, the place to start is by reining in one of its most powerful and profitable firms. Read more of this post

Haier expanding brand presence in US market

Haier expanding brand presence in US market

Staff Reporter

2014-01-15

China’s leading electrical appliance maker Haier Group has been trying to deepen its penetration into the US market because its brand name is not as well-known as its global counterparts in the country, Tencent’s financial news portal finance.qq.com reports. Read more of this post

Gov’t-Backed Consolidation of Hebei Steel Industry Melts Away

01.15.2014 19:10

Gov’t-Backed Consolidation of Hebei Steel Industry Melts Away

Three years after Hebei Iron & Steel Group incorporated 12 smaller players, everyone involved wants to go their own way

By staff reporter Zhang Boling

(Beijing) – Hebei Iron & Steel Group and the companies it incorporated in a government-backed consolidation three years ago want to undo the arrangement. In 2010, the government of the central province of Hebei, which produces about one-quarter of the country’s steel, arranged a consolidation of Hebei Iron & Steel, the country’s largest steelmaker, and 12 private firms in the hopes of boosting competitiveness and better regulating the industry. Read more of this post

Robert Gates Says China’s Xi Has Firmer Grip on Army Than Hu Did

Gates Says China’s Xi Has Firmer Grip on Army Than Hu Did

Chinese President Xi Jinping has greater control of the military than his predecessor did, and that increases the need for a strong White House relationship with him, former U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates said.

Gates, 70, said in an interview yesterday that former president President Hu Jintao “did not have strong control” of the People’s Liberation Army. The “best example,” Gates said, was China’s rollout of its stealthy J-20 fighter jet during a visit he made in January 2010. The event seemed to catch Hu unaware, Gates said, recounting a story in his memoir “Duty,” which is scheduled to go on sale today. Read more of this post

Fighting corruption in China – the video game

Fighting corruption in China – the video game

January 8, 2014

Liz Carter

“Fight Corruption” online game in China. Photo: Supplied

Washington: Official corruption in China is a serious matter: In January 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping openly vowed to tackle it, and a 2013 Pew study found that 53 percent of Chinese consider it a “very big problem.” But fighting bribery, extortion and graft isn’t just a presidential directive in China; it’s now also online entertainment. Read more of this post

Despite Slowdown, Employers in China Gave Bigger Raises

Jan 14, 2014

Despite Slowdown, Employers in China Gave Bigger Raises

Employers in China gave bigger raises last year on average than those elsewhere in Asia, a fresh sign that the country’s job market remains resilient despite slowing economic growth.

According to a survey by recruitment firm Hays, two-thirds of employers in China said they gave their workers raises during the last round of reviews of 6% or more—more than any other country surveyed. A majority, or 54%, of said they gave raises of between 6% and 10%, while 12% said they gave raises of more than 10%. Only 5% of employers in China said they gave no raises at all.

Read more of this post

Chinese general takes Mao devotion too far

January 15, 2014 8:00 am

Chinese general takes Mao devotion too far

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Hong Kong

Celebrating Chairman Mao Zedong is not a crime in China, unless you happen to have done so with the help of a pure gold statue of the former Chinese leader. Chinese media reported on Wednesday that police raided the home of Lieutenant General Gu Junshan, former deputy head of the People’s Liberation Army general logistics department, in connection with one of the most serious military graft scandalsto come to light in years. Read more of this post

China’s water shortage is so bad it could turn out the lights

China’s water shortage is so bad it could turn out the lights

By Adam Pasick @adampasick January 13, 2014

China has lost more than an entire Netherlands-worth of wetlands in the last decade—340,000 sq. km, or 9% of China’s total land—to agriculture, development, and climate change, according to new figures from its State Forestry Administration. It’s the latest in a long line of ominous warnings about the water supply in China, which has one-fifth of the world’s population but only 6% of its freshwater. Read more of this post

China’s Record Number of IPOs to Curb Small-Cap Equities

China’s Record Number of IPOs to Curb Small-Cap Equities

The number of Chinese initial public offerings will accelerate to a record pace in coming months, dragging down small-company stocks, according to UBS AG.

There will be some 60 to 80 IPOs each month from March to June, Chen Li, chief China equity strategist at UBS, said at a briefing in Shanghai. Increased stock supply will hold back share prices of smaller companies on the ChiNext Index after they surged last year, he said. Read more of this post

China’s Credit Growth Slows

China’s Credit Growth Slows

China’s broadest measure of new credit fell in December while money-supply growth and new yuan loans trailed estimates amid a cash crunch and government efforts to curb speculative lending. Read more of this post

China Will Always Be a Struggle; Robin Li, CEO of China’s largest search engine, believes foreign firms will always find it tough to succeed in China. The reason? Foreign companies don’t understand the local market environment

January 13, 2014

CFO.com | US

China Will Always Be a Struggle

Robin Li, CEO of China’s largest search engine, says foreign firms will always find China a tough market to crack. Baidu CEO Robin Li believes foreign firms will always find it tough to succeed in China, the search engine’s home market, according to a CNN story Monday. The reason they  fail is because they don’t “understand the local market environment,” says Li. “Companies need to know how to connect to the ground.” Read more of this post

China to Establish System for Tracking Real Estate Ownership; Nationwide Real Estate Registration System Could Pave Way For Levying Broad Property Tax

China to Establish System for Tracking Real Estate Ownership

Nationwide Real Estate Registration System Could Pave Way For Levying Broad Property Tax

ESTHER FUNG

Jan. 13, 2014 7:10 a.m. ET

SHANGHAI—China plans to establish a national system for tracking real-estate ownership and sales transactions, a key step in its effort to tame a property sector that threatens to price many Chinese out of the housing market. Read more of this post

China Provinces Set Lower Growth Goals for 2014

China Provinces Set Lower Growth Goals for 2014

Some Chinese provinces are setting lower growth targets for this year than in 2013, adding to signs that expansion will slow as the government focuses on policies to sustain the economy in the long term. Read more of this post

China grants gold import licenses to foreign banks for first time: sources

China grants gold import licenses to foreign banks for first time: sources

Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014

Reuters

SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI – China has granted licenses to import gold to two foreign banks for the first time, sources said, as moves to open the world’s biggest physical bullion market gather pace. Read more of this post

Bird flu epidemic overshadows Chinese New Year

Australia Is Hotter Than It’s Been In 100 Years

AMY COOPES, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
JAN. 14, 2014, 8:32 AM 1,779 2

Australian authorities warned Tuesday of some of the worst fire danger since a 2009 inferno which killed 173 people, with most of the continent’s southeast sweltering through a major heatwave.

Read more of this post