Bamboo Innovator

Yunnan Tin Chairman Arrested in Bribery Probe, State Media Says

Yunnan Tin Chairman Arrested in Bribery Probe, State Media Says

Lei Yi, chairman of the world’s largest producer of refined tin, Yunnan Tin Co., was arrested and charged with accepting 20 million yuan ($3.3 million) in bribes, China’s state-owned Yunnan Info Daily reported. Lei received bribes from four people, including Li Hongtao, the chairman of Leed International Education Group, the report said. Li paid the bribes in order to secure a majority stake in a private college partially owned by Yunnan Tin, the newspaper reported. Read more of this post

Sausage ceasefire may not end war between China’s noodle kings

Sausage ceasefire may not end war between China’s noodle kings

5:34pm EDT

By Alice Woodhouse

HONG KONG (Reuters) – It started with a sausage. A three-inch, complimentary ham sausage, to be precise. The price war for China’s $8.8 billion instant noodle market sparked last year by Uni-President China Holdings Ltd’s (0220.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) porcine giveaways soon escalated into free drinks, extra seasonings and other gifts as incumbent heavyweight Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holdings Corp (0322.HK: Quote,Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), owner of the Master Kong brand, sought to defend its patch. Read more of this post

Free-Trade Speculation Rally Spreads From Tianjin to Qingdao

Tianjin Companies Rally on Free-Trade Optimism: Shanghai Mover

Tianjin Port Co. (600717) rallied by the daily limit for a second day, leading gains in companies based in the city southeast of Beijing, on speculation it will follow Shanghai in gaining approval for a free-trade zone. Tianjin Port, Tianjin Quanye Bazaar (Group) Co. (600821), a department store operator, and Tianjin Marine Shipping Co. (900938) all jumped 10 percent at the 11:30 a.m. break in Shanghai. Volumes for the stocks were at least 25 percent higher than 20-day average for this time of day. The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) dropped 0.1 percent. Tianjin is awaiting approval from the central government to set up a free-trade zone in the Dongjiang Bonded Port Area, Radio Television Hong Kong reported Sept. 30. China’s markets were shut for a week from Oct. 1 for holidays. Companies with the word Shanghai in their name surged since Aug. 22, when the Commerce Ministry said the government approved a free-trade area in the coastal city. “The proposed free-trade zone in Tianjin is likely to give a significant boost to the local economy with several companies likely to benefit,” Gerry Alfonso, a trader at Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co. in Shanghai, said by e-mail. “There are buy and hold opportunities in the sector but there is going to be some volatility.” Shanghai International Port Group Co. surged 126 percent since Aug. 22. The stock has fallen 17 percent over the past five trading days as the zone was opened.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Allen Wan in New York at awan3@bloomberg.net

China Food-Safety Woes Soar

October 9, 2013, 2:13 PM

China Food-Safety Woes Soar

Chinese leader Xi Jinping chided New Zealand about food safety over the weekend in a move many Internet users found laughable. Maybe he should have addressed his comments to China’s national airline instead. Air China601111.SH 0.00% is in the public cross-hairs this week after more than 30 passengers on board on Oct. 6 flight suffered a mix of stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhea after consuming beef-filled pastries that passengers allege were past their consume-by dates.

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Newcrest, Australia’s largest gold producer, to Replace CEO, Chairman After A$6.2 Billion Asset Writedowns triggered a regulatory probe

Newcrest to Replace CEO, Chairman After Asset Writedowns

Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM), Australia’s largest gold producer, named Sandeep Biswas as chief executive officer in a boardroom clean out after a A$6.2 billion ($5.9 billion) writedown triggered a regulatory probe. Biswas, formerly CEO of Rio Tinto Group’s Pacific Aluminium unit, will replace Greg Robinson in the second half of 2014. Don Mercer, chairman since October 2006, will be replaced in December by Peter Hay, the Melbourne-based company said today in a statement. Read more of this post

Bank Indonesia Regulates Currency Hedging for Stable Rupiah

Bank Indonesia Regulates Currency Hedging for Stable Rupiah

Bank Indonesia said it will regulate currency hedging by individuals and companies, including state-owned firms, to help stabilize Asia’s most-volatile currency. The central bank will require Indonesians and corporations to present documents to show underlying economic activity, such as international trade, foreign debt and investments, to conduct hedging transactions with lenders, it said in a statement posted on its website today. The amount and duration of the hedges will be limited by the underlying activity, it said. Read more of this post

Wal-Mart breaks up with Indian partner Bharti Enterprises

Wal-Mart breaks up with Indian partner Bharti Enterprises

By Charles Riley  @CRrileyCNN October 9, 2013: 2:41 AM ET

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

Wal-Mart has reached an agreement to terminate its joint venture with Indian conglomerate Bharti Enterprises, the final blow to a collaborative effort that never quite gave Wal-Mart the toehold it desired on the subcontinent.

Arkansas-based Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) will acquire Bharti’s stake in the venture. Both companies say they will now strike out on their own and pursue independent retail operations. Although the partnership was announced to much fanfare in 2007, it had been on the rocks for some time, a casualty of India’s shifting policy landscape and evolving rules concerning foreign direct investment. Read more of this post

Sun Pharmaceutical Billionaire Seeking Deals as Rivals Founder: Corporate India

Sun Billionaire Seeking Deals as Rivals Founder: Corporate India

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Asia’s largest generic drugmaker by market value, is seeking to acquire makers of injectable to oral liquid medicines to help it exceed industry growth estimates. The Indian manufacturer of antibiotics to cancer drugs may also buy producers of branded ophthalmology products, said billionaire Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi in an interview. The company this year sought to acquire Swedish drugmaker Meda AB, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sun, which evaluates three to four acquisition targets every month, isn’t close to announcing any deal, Shanghvi said. Read more of this post

Singh’s Easy Loans to Voters Lift Honda to TVS: Corporate India

Singh’s Easy Loans to Voters Lift Honda to TVS: Corporate India

India’s plan to pump cash into state-owned banks is brightening the prospects of two-wheeler makers as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh woos voters with cheaper loans in the world’s second-biggest market. The government on Oct. 3 said it will bolster risk buffers of its lenders to encourage lower financing costs for consumer durables. That sent the S&P BSE India Auto Index to an eight-month high with Bajaj Auto Ltd. (BJAUT), TVS Motor Co. (TVSL) and Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (HMCL), the nation’s largest, rallying on the move to revive vehicle demand after sales growth slumped to a four-year low. Read more of this post

India’s Cow-Belt King Is Put Out to Pasture

India’s Cow-Belt King Is Put Out to Pasture

Last week, the law finally caught up with the five-term member of India’s parliament Lalu Prasad Yadav, for decades one of the most colorful political figures. The son of a humble milkman, he rose to great power by throwing himself into the vicious caste wars of his region. In the process, Yadav, 65, brought millions of previously marginalized people into the mainstream of Indian politics, even as he established his own cult of power and brazenly bent every rule. Yadav is a one-man case study in Indian democracy at its most emancipatory — and its most exasperating. Read more of this post

Southern India Protests Leave 21 Million People Without Power

Southern India Protests Leave 21 Million People Without Power

Almost 21 million people were left without electricity for the third consecutive day in Andhra Pradesh as protests against a plan to split the southern Indian state spread, halting power plants and impeding distribution. No electricity has been supplied since Oct. 6 to the districts of Prakasam, Nellore, Cuddapah, Ananthapur, Krishna and Guntur, a top official in the state government’s electricity department said. Almost 3,600 megawatts of generation capacity, or 20 percent of the state’s total, remain shut as 60,000 workers stayed away from work, he said, requesting anonymity as he isn’t an authorized spokesman. Read more of this post

Land-hungry Hong Kong looks underground, as developers eye parks

Land-hungry Hong Kong looks underground, as developers eye parks

5:15pm EDT

By Yimou Lee and Alexandra Hoegberg

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Wild boar and water buffalo are not an image most people associate with one of the world’s great global financial centres. Yet in Hong Kong, where more than 7 million people are packed into just 30 percent of the territory, the green belts, country parks, woodlands and wetlands that take up the rest of the land provide ample space for such animals to roam. Read more of this post

Marlboro Man Dons Lab Coat to Find Next Big Tobacco Hit

Marlboro Man Dons Lab Coat to Find Next Big Tobacco Hit

Not all cigarette butts are trash.

At a Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) lab on a Swiss lake, researcher Bertrand Bonvin insists the butts of the Marlboro maker’s next-generation tobacco products be burned after testing, lest the proprietary technology in them sneak out. Despite the growing popularity of e-cigarettes, Bonvin and his peers at the biggest tobacco companies are still looking for their holy grail — a product that will hook nicotine-craving smokers like conventional cigarettes, without the health downfalls. Such an item could reignite stocks in the $760 billion industry, which have stagnated over the past 12 months amid falling sales and increased restrictions on smoking. Read more of this post

Commodity Prices Wrong as Often as 27% of the Time for Traders

Commodity Prices Wrong as Often as 27% of the Time for Traders

Commodities traders who buy and sell as much as $5.67 trillion of raw materials a year say the benchmark prices for everything from oil to iron ore to gasoline are wrong as often as 27 percent of the time. In a Bloomberg News survey conducted during the past eight weeks, 85 traders and analysts said they have little confidence in the assessed prices of crude, metals and iron ore. Regulators, including European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, may examine commodities markets, having already increased investigations of manipulation of benchmarks for interest rates, derivatives, foreign exchange and oil. Read more of this post

Cargill’s expected cocoa coup rattles confectioners, dealers

Cargill’s expected cocoa coup rattles confectioners, dealers

5:52pm EDT

By Marcy Nicholson

NEW YORK (Reuters) – This past summer, European authorities took just six weeks to approve Barry Callebaut’s $950 million purchase of Petra Foods’ (PEFO.SI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) cocoa business, a deal that created the world’s largest cocoa company with a quarter of the $10 billion market. The European Commission decided the deal did not require deeper look partly because two other firms provided stiff enough competition in the niche industry. Read more of this post

Taiwan Warns That China Could Mount Successful Invasion by 2020

Taiwan Warns That China Could Mount Successful Invasion by 2020

China may be able to successfully invade Taiwan by 2020 as it develops technology to prevent allies such as the U.S. from coming to the island’s aid, the Taiwanese defense ministry said. A military modernization campaign has seen China’s People’s Liberation Army enhance its ability to make long-range precision strikes and develop so-called area-denial technology, the ministry said in its 2013 National Defense Report. Read more of this post