Results tagged “finance”

Ever since the State Council revealed plans to transform Shanghai into a global financial and shipping center by 2020, rumors have been swirling of a competition for supremacy between it and Greater China's current economic center, Hong Kong. Not that the official stance should surprise anyone, but Shanghai's most senior Communist Party member has now come out to say any "rivalry" is completely imagined. Yu Zhengsheng told Hong Kong media that the two cities would "always be complementary to each other and the growth of the two cities brings them mutual benefits." This marks the first time the government has said anything... which almost makes you wonder. If they felt the need to assure people of its nonexistance, maybe there's some truth to the rivalry after all? Source: SCMP

George Soros was in Shanghai a few days ago and gave a lecture at Fudan, and then went off to meet his old buddy, Alibaba head honcho Ma Yun, in Hangzhou, where he talked without notes and generally enthralled people with his guru-ness. According to Soros China is the bomb and is already recovering from the financial crisis even as the rest of the world still founders, and yeah, he put Alan Greenspan in his place, and yeah those yangmei (Chinese bayberries) are delightfully delicious. Oh, and one of the articles had this interesting intro:

The U.S. isn't the only country that's making incredibly super rich people cut down on their incredible super richness, China has now also set compensation caps for its State-sector financial companies. Salaries for top executives are now limited to 2.8 million yuan. Caps for pay packages will be slashed for regular executives, down to four times their annual salary (50,000 to 700,000 yuan). Oh, the humanity! Source: China Daily

Photo from fateless_gypsy

In a new dispatch on how the American brand has been dented by the ongoing financial crisis, AFP says Chinese accounting firm Lehman Brown which has long been threatened with lawsuits from a "certain Wall Street investment bank" is now "suddenly open to a name change":

CHINA-BASED accountants Lehman Brown refused to budge when lawyers acting for a certain Wall Street investment bank sent threatening letters demanding they change their name.

Continue reading "Accounting firm Lehman Brown to finally change its name?"

Even as news of the sudden closure of the Hong Kong-listed Dongguan-based toy manufacturer Smart Union, a key supplier to Mattel and Disney, continue to hog international headlines, framed against the backdrop of the ongoing financial crisis that has spread from the United States to the rest of the world, Xinhua says it has the "whole truth" on those closures, and makes the case that many other toy factories had been closing since the start of the year and the most recent closures have little to do with economic troubles in the U.S.:

While there are reports that in the first seven months of the year, more than 3,600 toy makers already went out of business in China thanks to factors such as rising wages and material costs.

Continue reading "Xinhua has "the whole truth" on toy factory closures"

Photo by Jakob Montrasio.

As the United States and Europe continue to reel from the financial fallout, Asia is heaving a collective sigh of relief that this time, it is at least not their fault. Iceland's biggest banking crisis ever has forced its almost bankrupt government to turn to Russia for a US$4 billion loan, raising eyebrows everywhere as to what this means for geopolitics in Europe.

The President of China Investment Corp, Gao Xiqing, has made his way to the U.S. with Wei Christianson, CEO and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley China, sparking rumours that the Chinese sovereign wealth fund may buy up to 49% of the beleaguered investment bank. Gao has been scheduled to meet Morgan Stanley executives in San Francisco after the New York-based company plunged 42% after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America.

A study by MasterCard found that Shanghai has leapt from 32nd position to 24th in the ranks of the world's leading centres of commerce, becoming one of eight Asian cities in the top 25.

By Sue Anne Tay

By Sue Ann Tay

From the BBC:

Stephen Sackur talks to Liu Mingkang, Chairman, China Banking Regulatory Commission. Will China escape the downturn in the American economy?

Recently, Tudou's Marc van der Chijs commented on how he knew the bubble in the Chinese stockmarket had to burst soon when he found out that his driver, too, had jumped headlong onto the stock bandwagon although he had zero understanding of how stockmarkets work. You will find an echo of that sentiment in Al-Jazeera's latest report on China's current stockmarket frenzy. Meanwhile, David Barboza of the New York Times says China wonders if its stock market boom is over. And as China Digital Times reports, the recent stock market crash caused a Beijing investor to attempt suicide in the Wangfujing shopping district. Video after the jump:

By JFK Miller

The man who posed as the farmer on some of the old renminbi notes is still alive... and he's in Shanghai!

Air transport AFP: Air China, Shanghai Airlines join Star Alliance XFN: China Eastern says partnership with Singapore Airlines, Temasek 'only option' AFP: Singapore Airlines says won't raise China Eastern bid Finance Reuters: U.S. says China recognises need for stronger yuan NYT: Little Headway With China on Finance FT: Beijing lectures US on effect of weak dollar Drugs, drugs and drugs AP: China Shuts Down Leukemia Drug Maker Xinhua: China issues new drug recall method...

Business and Economy WSJ: China Takes Additional Step To Cool Economy AFP: Underground money traders flourish on Hong Kong border Religion Xinhua: China-based Christian group prints 50 mln Bibles Reuters: Dalai Lama says sorry he can't meet Pope SCMP: Student leader finds meaning in life with God's will on campus [Subscription] AP: Dallas evangelical Christian seminary offers online courses in Chinese Miscellaneous AP: China Detains 33 in Deadly Mine Blast CNSNews: For China, Even...

Will the Dalai Lama reincarnate before he dies? Calgary Herald: Two Dalai Lamas? Reuters: China condemns Dalai Lama for ideas on succession The Times: Dalai Lama offers his flock a vote on whether he should be reincarnated The Economist: Communists can live with reincarnation. A referendum is a different matter AP: China Reports Riot in Southwestern Tibet Sino-US relations NYT: China Explains Decision to Block U.S. Ships Bloomberg: China Denies Saying Incident Was `Misunderstanding'...

Jiangsu Satellite tells us of the roller coaster ride a young stock investor had recently. One morning, Mr Peng, while checking his stocks online, found RMB900 million mysteriously credited to his account. Shocked (but pleasantly surprised), Peng didn't know what to think and went about his work. A few hours later, when he checked on his account again just to make sure he wasn't dreaming, all RMB900 million had disappeared, along with the over RMB4,000...

The Xinhua News Agency is reporting that China may allow foreign multinationals to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange(SSE). SSE officials are conducting feasibility studies and companies names mentioned include HSBC Holdings Plc, Coca-Cola Co., and Siemens AG. China is under renewed international pressure to speed up its currency reform and open its financial market. Letting foreign firms trade on domestic bourses may just be the first of many steps toward integrating China into the...

Metro news from the local press:

Question: “Who are three people who’ve never been in my kitchen?” Or lately: "Name three people hating on the once mighty US dollar." On Tuesday, Cheng Siwei, the vice chairman of China’s National People’s Congress suggested that China’s foreign exchange regulators ought to consider shifting the country’s massive USD $1.4 trillion reserve into “stronger” currencies. The greenback has been on a downward spiral since 2003. Little did Cheng know that his remarks would trigger a...

And in a class all by itself, the US$1 trillion(1,000,000,000,000) club. On Monday, the 4 billion A-share offering, priced at 16.7 yuan per share, finished its first day of trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange at 43.96 yuan, rising as high as 48 yuan intraday. At US$1.005 trillion, PetroChina’s market cap is more than twice that of its US peer, Exxon Mobil (USD $486 billion), even though Exxon Mobil generated four times as much revenue...

For the first time in 17 months, China will raise wholesale price cap of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, “to guarantee domestic supply of refined oil and promote energy conservation/为保证国内成品油供应，促进能源节约,” or so says the National Development and Reform Council. Per metric ton of all three refined products will go up 500 yuan, or roughly 10 percent, starting November 1.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China(ICBC), the world’s largest bank by market capitalization, is buying 20 percent of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group Ltd. Standard Bank is based in Johannesburg and has branches in 18 African nations. The USD $5.5 billion price tag marks the most expensive overseas investment by a Chinese firm to date. Earlier in the week, CITIC Securities, also a state owned company, swapped USD $1 billion worth of equities with Bear Stearns. Both tie-ups are just the latest examples of corporate China’s aggressive international merger and acquisition binge, started back in 2004 when Lenovo bought IBM’s PC business.

For those keeping scores at home, and we know you are, this is now the third installment on the on-again, off again love affair between Bear Stearns and the Chinese government sponsored investment firm, CITIC. At this point, we don't know what or whom to believe.

Earlier this week, we told you that a Chinese state owned bank is in talks to buy a stake in US investment bank, Bear Stearns. Apparently, we got some bad info, well actually Dow Jones Newswires got some bad info. See what happens when Rupert Murdoch gets involved? Anyway, today, we learned from a much more reputable publication, Shanghai Daily, that the deal is off, or something like that, here is the quote

According to Bloomberg News, finance ministers of the G7 nations, currently meeting in Washington are once again expected to issue a strongly worded statement prodding China to do more with an undervalued yuan. The traditionally US championed trade tussle is getting some very vocal support from the Europeans and the Canadians this time around.