Bamboo Innovator

Some Big Public Pension Funds Are Behaving Like Activist Investors

NOVEMBER 28, 2013, 8:48 PM

Some Big Public Pension Funds Are Behaving Like Activist Investors

By RANDALL SMITH

Activist investors like Carl C. Icahn, Daniel S. Loeb and William A. Ackman are getting deep-pocketed imitators. Some of the biggest public pension funds, which have sought to influence companies for years, are now starting to emulate these investors by engaging with, and sometimes seeking to oust, directors of companies whose stock they own.

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Why Burberry is Fighting for its Trademark in China

Nov 28, 2013

Why Burberry is Fighting for its Trademark in China

In one of the more noteworthy intellectual property setbacks for a foreign brand in China, Burberry is fighting to keep control of its signature “Haymarket Check” tartan pattern. To understand why, one most look back to a years-long dispute between the U.K. luxury brand and a Chinese brand with the rather un-Chinese sounding name of Polo Santa Roberta. Read more of this post

Wenzhou NPLs hit new high

Wenzhou NPLs hit new high

2013-11-29 01:57:27 GMT2013-11-29 09:57:27(Beijing Time)  Global Times

Non-performing loans (NPL) in the banking sector in Wenzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, hit a new high at the end of October, China Business News (CBN) reported Thursday, citing the latest data from Wenzhou Banking Regulatory Bureau. The NPL of Wenzhou’s banking sector totaled 31.13 billion yuan ($5.11 billion) by the end of October, while the NPL ratio reached 4.31 percent, hitting a new high since the second half of 2011, CBN said in the report. Fund guarantee chain risks and the slow growth of new bank loans were the major causes for the high amount of NPL.

Traditional banking sector in China faces downturn

Traditional banking sector in China faces downturn

Staff Reporter

2013-11-26

The website of Alibaba Group’s Yuebao fund. Yuebao is a subsidiary company under the Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group and is co-hosted by Tian Hong Asset Management. (Photo/CFP)

The banking industry in China has faced a downtrend due to the rise in popularity of online payment systems as well as interest rates being controlled by the market rather than the government or central bank, reports Shanghai’s First Financial Daily. Read more of this post

Technology and society: China has its own distinctive version of the maker movement, which spans electronics hobbyists and high-tech startups

Technology and society: China has its own distinctive version of the maker movement, which spans electronics hobbyists and high-tech startups

Nov 30th 2013 | From the print edition

IT IS a drizzly October day in Shanghai, and beneath a few dozen bright orange tents, set up in the plaza of a shiny new innovation park, hundreds of electronics hobbyists and entrepreneurs are attending China’s second Maker Carnival. The “maker” movement, an offshoot of do-it-yourself culture whose adherents design and build their own technology products, is more established in America: the most recent Maker Faire New York, for example, held in September, boasted some 75,000 participants and over 650 stalls. But size isn’t everything, even in China. Read more of this post

Short Circuit for Foreign Electronics Vendors; A ‘buy local’ push sparked by security concerns is hurting foreign and helping domestic makers of electronic gear

11.27.2013 15:53

Short Circuit for Foreign Electronics Vendors

A ‘buy local’ push sparked by security concerns is hurting foreign and helping domestic makers of electronic gear

By staff reporter Qin Min

(Beijing) – What’s hot lately in China’s electronics industry is not the latest gadget but procurement guidance from the central government that is starting to sting Western companies. That guidance can be summarized in two words: Buy local. Several sources close to the American electronics giant Cisco Systems Inc. told Caixin that Chinese government agencies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been told to “when possible” turn their backs on electronics equipment offered by overseas firms in favor of domestic company products. Read more of this post

Outspoken property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang’s secret to success

Outspoken property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang’s secret to success

Staff Reporter

2013-11-28

Ren Zhiqiang attends the Boao Forum for Asia. (Photo/CNS)

The 62-year-old chairman of Beijing Huayuan Property, Ren Zhiqiang, is known for his frank and straightforward criticism of China’s property policies. In an interview with the celebrity entrepreneur in late October, the Guangzhou-based Southern People Weekly unlocked the mystery of Ren’s outspoken character. Read more of this post

China’s reforms to hit investment trust industry hard: study

China’s reforms to hit investment trust industry hard: study

1:17am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) – The breakneck pace of growth in China’s 10 trillion yuan ($1.64 trillion) investment trust industry is unsustainable and earnings risk drying up as the government steps up financial reforms that will change sources of revenue, research shows. Close to 90 percent of revenues in the industry are at risk in the long run with about 40 percent of earnings forecast to disappear completely in five years, according to a study by consultant McKinsey & Company and Ping An Trust. Read more of this post

China Makes Environmental Case for Increasing Big Coal’s Clout

China Makes Environmental Case for Increasing Big Coal’s Clout

Beijing Wants State-Owned Giants to Manage Industry’s Development, Environmental Consequences

CHUIN-WEI YAP

Updated Nov. 28, 2013 8:08 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China is moving to increase the clout of its state-owned coal giants, as it seeks to clean up a sprawling and heavily polluting industry that is nevertheless crucial to its energy needs. In a policy proposal unveiled Thursday, the State Council, China’s cabinet, said it wants big corporate champions to manage the economic development and environmental consequences of the industry, which also has a slew of smaller operators. Read more of this post

China Faces CNY$20Trl Infrastructure Funding Gap in 2020 for Urbanization Drive: Think Tank

China Faces CNY$20Trl Infrastructure Funding Gap in 2020 for Urbanization Drive: Think Tank

11-29 11:24 Caijing Read more of this post

The J.Crew Invasion

The J.Crew Invasion

By Emma Rosenblum November 27, 2013

Dozens of shivering British fashion bloggers, TV personalities, and socialites snake down London’s Regent Street, waiting patiently to get into the Nov. 6 opening night party for the J.Crew flagship store. Inside, bearded men like James Middleton, brother of Kate and Pippa, browse skinny ties and shrunken blazers. Women in full skirts and crop tops paw through tables of pastel cashmere. Everyone’s hair is chicly disheveled, as are their teeth. On the stairs up to the second level of the 17,000-square-foot space, the biggest of the three J.Crew stores that opened in London in November, two partyers pause. “Oh! There’s Mickey and Jenna,” one whispers reverentially, pointing at J.Crew Chief Executive Officer Millard “Mickey” Drexler and Creative Director and President Jenna Lyons. He’s playing town mayor in a navy blazer and a white button-down. She’s in sparkly green pumps and her signature oversize black glasses. There’s a photo booth and Champagne cocktails, and it’s all very fabulous and also kind of funny, because it’s just J.Crew, after all. Read more of this post

How Alyssa Milano Created a Fan-Gear Fashion Empire for Women

How Alyssa Milano Created a Fan-Gear Fashion Empire for Women

By Joel Stein November 27, 2013

Alyssa Milano isn’t crazy about pink. “I was in Dodger Stadium, and I was freezing—it was the beginning of the season, before the poop smell sets in,” says the star of TV’s Who’s the Boss? and Charmed, recalling a baseball game she attended eight years ago. “I went into the store to get something warm to wear. And I was offended.” The only color available in women’s clothing was pink. “Their answer for female sports apparel back then was ‘pink it and shrink it.’ It was either that or buy something from the kids’ section. Which I did. I got a kid’s hoodie.” In Dodger blue. Read more of this post

Sugar Mills to Prolong Shutdown in India’s Uttar Pradesh on Cane

Sugar Mills to Prolong Shutdown in India’s Uttar Pradesh on Cane

Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, India’s biggest growing state, will extend a shutdown to prevent losses from widening as a dispute over pricing of cane continues, potentially reducing the country’s output, a millers’ group said. Factories will remain shut as the mills can only pay 225 rupees ($3.60) per 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of cane, compared with the state-set price of 280 rupees, Abinash Verma, director general of the Indian Sugar Mills Association, told reporters in New Delhi today. India ranks second globally among sugar producers after Brazil. Read more of this post

Despite a tarnished record, commodities have not lost their lustre for all

Despite a tarnished record, commodities have not lost their lustre for all

Nov 30th 2013 | From the print edition

GRAIN silos, oil pipelines and copper smelters are not exactly glamorous. Yet for a glorious couple of years up until mid-2008, commodities were all the rage. China was booming, and supplies of everything from soyabeans to iron ore were failing to keep pace, prompting a giddy leap in prices. Financial engineers minted all manner of products tied to these movements. Not only were commodities on a roll, their patter went; they also provided a crucial hedge for any diversified portfolio, since they did not move in tandem with other assets. Read more of this post

GrainCorp Verdict Clouds Australia Open-For-Business Pledge

GrainCorp Verdict Clouds Australia Open-For-Business Pledge

The Australian government’s decision to block Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM)’s takeover of GrainCorp Ltd. comes 12 weeks after Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s election-night vow that Australia is open for business. Citing national interest grounds, Treasurer Joe Hockey barred the A$2.2 billion ($2 billion) deal in the biggest rejection since Singapore Exchange Ltd.’s A$8.4 billion bid for ASX Ltd. was blocked in 2011. Also this week, Hockey flagged the possibility of taxpayer support for national carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN) Australia’s dollar fell and GrainCorp’s shares plunged 22 percent after today’s announcement. Read more of this post