China :: Business :: Deals

Source : Vitasoy International Holdings Limited HONG KONG, Dec. 21, 2010 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- In view of the increasing number of people traveling between Hong Kong and Mainland China, coupled with the rising popularity of RMB usage in Hong Kong, Vitasoy International Holdings Limited ('Vitasoy', HKEx stock code: 345) has recently taken the lead in launching the first RMB full vending machine which accepts RMB payment to facilitate the purchase of Vitasoy beverages by Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese citizens and travelers. Vitasoy has placed the RMB full vending machines on the Hong Kong side of some border control points and piers, such as Shenzhen Bay, China Ferry Terminal and Macau Ferry Terminal. The Company plans to install more Vitasoy full vending machines which accept both RMB and HKD in more traveling points which are popular to Mainland Chinese travelers in the future. These machines accept RMB notes of $10 face value.

Source : Capital Vue December 24 – Yantai North Andre Juice (8259.HK) won the approval of Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited to transfer its listing from the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) bourse to the Main Board, reports finet.hk, citing a company filing. The last day of the company’s H-share trading on GEM is January 18, 2011 and trading in the H shares on the Main Board (new ticker: 2218.HK) will begin on 19 January 2011. The directors believe that listing on the Main Board will enhance the company’s image and attract larger institutional and retail investors. The company makes and sells juice concentrate, extracts, foodstuffs and related products. It owns nine juice concentrate factories, one fruit mashing plant, and one pectin processing base. For the first half of 2010, the company generated 10.46 million yuan in net income, a 33.05-percent year-on-year decrease.

Company raises RMB 482 million to strengthen production capacity and market share for PET beverage packaging business ZHUHAI, China and HONG KONG, Dec. 23, 2010 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- China's leading beverage packaging and PET bottling company, Zhuhai Zhongfu Enterprise Holdings Limited ('Zhuhai Zhongfu'; stock code: SZ000659), announced its private placement was 2.7 times oversubscribed and that it will issue 68 million new shares at RMB 7.1 per share, raising RMB 482 million. The net proceeds will be fully committed to the expansion program for the Company's core businesses, namely PET bottle manufacturing, bottle blowing and drink refilling. Zhuhai Zhongfu said it anticipates its profitability, production and marketing capability will be further enhanced once the new facilities are integrated into its operations. The Company intends to leverage the expansion to capitalise on the booming beverage packaging industry in China as well as the expansion plans of its major cu...

China Retail News The Chinese time-honored tea leaf brand Beijing Wu Yutai Tea Company Limited has signed a cooperation agreement of intent with a Hong Kong company to implement a complete investigation and planning for its development and chain store expansion in Hong Kong. A representative from Wu Yutai introduced that based on Wu Yutai's large sales and brand influence on the Chinese mainland, the two parties will establish diversified industry models that can satisfy consumer groups of all levels. They will first set up Wu Yutai's Hong Kong flagship shop, a modern teahouse with the themes of tea culture. The featured shop will be located in the prosperous Tsim Sha Tsui area in Hong Kong, with an estimated investment of CNY10 million. Sticking to chain development, Wu Yutai now has over 230 tea leaf shops on the Chinese mainland. At the same time, it establishes high-end restaurants that focus on the tea culture, tea health research, and cuisines made of tea. In the Hong Kon...

China Retail News Following the opening of its first Ole' high-end supermarket in Shanghai in July 2010, China Resources Vanguard has launched another high-end supermarket brand BLT at Lianyang Plaza, Pudong. The new BLT at Lianyang Plaza has an area of 2,300 square meters and it offers featured imported products, including organic food, health food, wine, and western-style cooking materials. With simple interior decorations, BLT mainly targets young white collars and most of its products are imported from other Asian countries. China Resources Vanguard told local media that it plans to open 20 to 30 BLT supermarkets in Shanghai over the next three to five years. In addition, the retailer will open four to six new Ole' supermarkets in Shanghai. A representative in charge of the business affairs of China Resources Vanguard revealed that if there are proper opportunities, the company will accelerate the expansion of its market share by acquisitions. It will locate its new sites a...

Source : Global Times Yili Industrial Group Co. Ltd., one of the country's leading diary products manufacturers, announced Monday the formation of a strategic partnership with Walt Disney Company. The two parties will work together on product and marketing activities in the next five years starting from 2011. Disney's cartoons and films, like the Mickey Mouse and Toy Story will be printed on Yili's diary products. The cooperation will cover both regular sales channels in stores and other fields like residential blocks; the soon-to-be-launched Disney Land in Shanghai and the Internet. Yili also changed its logo to add more international elements on the same day.

Austrian Times Red Bull is setting its sights on China, it has emerged. Dietrich Mateschitz, head of the company based in Fuschl near Salzburg, said the plan was to enter the Chinese market next year. The company boss, who rarely speaks to the press, told the German Lebensmittel Zeitung newspaper: 'We’ve just left the first base camp on our climb to the top.' Mateschitz said he saw the potential of selling up to eight billion cans of the firm’s trademark drink a year. Nearly four billion units of Red Bull went over the counter last year, and the Austrian businessman claimed his firm will have sold 4.2 billion cans by the end of this year. Red Bull, which is not listed on the stock market, is the strongest Austrian brand in the world with an estimated value of 12 billion Euros. The firm raked in just 11 million Euros in its first year of doing business in 1987 while having spent three million Euros more on marketing initiatives at the same time. Red Bull’s annual turnover has ra...

China Retail News Chinese dairy giant Mengniu has announced that it has acquired a 51% stake in Junlebao, its competitor in the North China market, for CNY469.2 million. This acquisition is expected to expand Mengniu's yogurt production capacity. Junlebao's overall equity value is estimated at CNY920 million. Under the agreement, Mengniu acquires a 51% stake in Junlebao for CNY469.2 million. However, Junlebao will maintain its executive team and its Junlebao brand will still be operated independently after the acquisition. With the cooperation, Mengniu's market share in China's yogurt sector will increase to 30%. According to statistics published by Mengniu, from 2006 to 2009, its yogurt compound growth rate was 27.3%; and its growth rate for the first half of 2010 increased by 30.3% year-on-year. Yang Wenjun, president of Mengniu, said during a press conference that over the next five years, Mengniu aims to become the world's top ten dairy enterprise with annual re...

Beijing joins the race to the bottom to harvest massive sulphides and other rare mineral resources This summer China's Jiaolong manned submersible, under development in secret since 2003, reached a depth of 3,759 metres on a dive in the South China Sea, technically speaking not far from the 5,000 metres or so that France's Nautile has reached. In theory, the Jiaolong can dive to 7,000 metres, whereas the limit for the Shinkai , its Japanese rival, is 6,500 metres. "It is the most recent submersible, with the benefit of the latest technologies," says Pierre Cochonat, deputy-head of programmes at France's Marine Exploitation Research Institute ( Ifremer ) and a specialist on the ocean depths. At Qingdao, in Shandong province east of Beijing, a research centre is being built for marine systems operating at great depths. It will be the Jiaolong's home and also accommodate China's unmanned submarines. The country has made a huge commitment to rese...

by Zoe Wood Tesco aims to quadruple sales in China and nearly double selling space in central Europe and Turkey Tesco has set out ambitious plans to open more stores in Europe and Asia as the UK grocer seeks to boost profitability abroad. The supermarket already has more physical selling space abroad than in Britain but its international arm, which includes loss-making start-ups in China and the US, produces a third of sales and a fifth of group profits. Tesco told analysts, who are on a three-day tour of the British company's main overseas markets, today that it plans to nearly double its selling space in central Europe and Turkey to 4.1m sq metres over the next five years. It has 850 stores in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey and it said it would expand with its convenience-style Express outlets as well as small and large hypermarkets. The trip has taken in South Korea and China and the retailer said it planned to quadruple its sales in China to...

by Tim Webb • Rolls Royce supplies 56% of engines for large airliners in China • Asian airlines expect to have a fleet of 12,200 planes by 2029 Rolls-Royce has won its second big engine contract since its safety scare, announcing a $1.8bn (£1.12bn) deal with Air China. The deal is to supply engines for 20 new wide-bodied Airbus aircraft for Air China. The engines are different from the Trent 900 model used on the Airbus "superjumbo" that exploded in mid-air but are part of the same Trent family. Rolls-Royce said in a statement that it was "very proud" that the airline had "again put their trust in us". The contract follows the $1.2bn engine deal this month with China Eastern Airlines , which was struck during the government's trade delegation visit to the country. Rolls-Royce said that following this second deal, the company now supplies more than half – 56% – of engines for new large airliners in China. The Air China contract is to supply Tren...

by Heather Connon China's growth prospects and the skill of a veteran fund manager have delivered Fidelity success but what if Bolton leaves? Combine the magic of the Anthony Bolton name with the excitement about the growth prospects in China and it is no surprise that the launch of the Fidelity China Special Situations fund attracted huge interest: the £465m raised made it the biggest emerging-market investment trust launch in 20 years. Its maiden set of results would appear to vindicate investors' faith in the veteran fund manager. Between the 9 April launch and the end of September, the share price return was 13.2%, almost 10 times greater than the 1.4% return on the MSCI China index. About half of that growth, however, is because the shares now trade at a premium to the value of the underlying assets, currently around 10%; the increase in the value of the fund itself was 7.7%, still comfortably ahead of the index. Other managers have done at least as well: among u...

from World news: China | guardian.co.uk by Edward Helmore • GE is investing $2bn in China setting up joint ventures • US has lost 40% of its manufacturing jobs since 1979 • US government hopes to create 800,000 green jobs by 2012 Nestled in the orchards of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, Winchester has seen its share of economic changes. Last month, a confluence of clean energy regulation and high manufacturing costs forced the closure of General Electric's Winchester lamp plant with the loss of 200 jobs. The manufacturing group concluded US workers were too costly and lacked the necessary skills to make the new, curled energy-efficient bulbs. Production, like so much of the clean energy industry, is shifting abroad, notably to China where GE announced this week a $2bn (£1.24bn) investment to boost innovation and set up joint ventures. To workers in this pre-revolution frontier town, the incandescent bulb – virtually unchanged in a century – may be outdated but GE...

from World news: China | guardian.co.uk by Phillip Inman, Patrick Wintour Rolls-Royce to supply and service jet engines for China Eastern Airlines in order secured as part of David Cameron's trade mission Rolls-Royce delivered a boost to David Cameron's trade mission to China by announcing a £750m deal to supply and service jet engines for a Chinese airline. The British engineering firm has also been contracted to reduce the carbon emissions of China Eastern Airlines, by 190,000 tonnes in the first year of a fuel management service. The airline has a fleet of more than 300 aircraft. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing for the largest order secured so far during the prime minister's visit to China. The news is welcome relief for Rolls-Royce whose shares fell 10% after a Qantas airliner made an emergency landing in Singapore last week following the mid-air explosion of a Trent 900 engine. Qantas has grounded all its Airbus A380 superj...

PayPal plans China expansion By Kathrin Hille in Beijing Published: December 29 2010 13:07 | Last updated: December 29 2010 13:32 PayPal, the world’s largest online payment platform, is planning an expansion in China, a move that could strengthen its parent Ebay in the expanding e-commerce market. Through a co-operation agreement with the government of Chongqing, China’s largest municipality, PayPal plans to offer a range of services – including, for the first time, a foreign exchange settlement solution – to Chinese entrepreneurs selling to consumers overseas. Chinese authorities have set a ceiling for individuals to convert foreign currency into local currency of $50,000 a year. PayPal said this regulation hindered small businesses and entrepreneurs from building a cross-border e-commerce business, and its payment platform would help small merchants get quick access to an export licence, which allows a higher conversion ceiling.China’s online payment market had a transaction volume o...

After spending billions of dollars to bail out General Motors Co. last year, the US government is eager to unload its 61% stake of the now profitable automaker. That unloading could happen as soon as November, when GM’s anticipated IPO is launched to the general public. One company showing increased interest in the pending IPO is GM business partner, and Chinese company, SAIC Motor Corp. According to the Wall Street Journal , SAIC has been central to GM’s success in China and is expected to continue to play a major role in future success. In fact, GM’s sales in China rose 19% for the past year, ending in August. That’s contrary to a struggling US and European market. The sticky issue is the potential political backlash caused by selling an American icon, which was rescued from failure by the American taxpayers, to a non-American company. When the general public is allowed to purchase stock, buying is not limited to domestic investors. Anyone from foreign companies to sove...

China's potentially massive investment in electric and hybrid vehicles clearly marks its desire to be a world leader. But given their auto industry track record, it also poses the question of whether or not they will be successful. According to Shanghai Securities News, 16 large, state-owned auto companies have signed up to form an alliance that will oversee research and development of electric and hybrid vehicles -- to the tune of US$15 billion. The plan: to put over a million EV's and or hybrids on the road, sending its own ripples through the world's fastest growing auto industry. There's no question they can put forward the investment. “This is the kind of plan the government would like to happen, and they certainly have the resources to put behind it,” said Oded Shenkar, a professor of management at Ohio State University and the author of “The Chinese Century.” “The government could easily underwrite or subsidize the development costs,” Shenkar said,...

BYD F3DM plug-in hybrid – Click above for high-res image gallery As we've reported before, China is boldly aiming to be the worldwide leader in alternative technology vehicles . Though we don't doubt the country's ability to achieve this goal, several conflicting reports have shown that the nation has struggled to gain ground in the electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid markets . All that might change now that China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is preparing to roll out a massive investment plan that should help boost development of alternative technology vehicles, the Shanghai Securities News is reporting. China's new ten-year investment plan (2011-2020) sets aside over 100 billion yuan ($14.7 billion U.S. at the current exchange rate) for the development and production of alternative technology vehicles. The plan is expected to be approved later this month and should go a long way towards helping China reach its annual production goal of 5...

Athens of the East: China claims to have a budget surplus and a huge pile of net reserves. Don't believe it. Enron-like, the PRC hides its debt off the books in "state-investment companies." BEIJING – While parts of the world are dealing with the aftermath of the financial crisis or an emerging sovereign-debt crisis, China is coping with the risk of overheating and/or an asset bubble. Many factors may be pushing China’s economy in this direction. One of the most worrying is the same which fueled the current crisis in the eurozone: mushrooming public debt. In the eurozone, the problem is member countries’ sovereign debt; in China, the problem is borrowing linked to local governments. In the eurozone, a bloated social-welfare system, particularly for the rapidly growing population of retirees, and the economic slowdown caused by the financial crisis are key components of the structural debt problem. In China, local officials increased borrowing in order to...

China is the Most Attractive Country for Renewables Investment. China has succeeded the US as the most attractive location in which to invest in renewable energy projects, according to Ernst & Young's latest Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices. London, UK -- China has succeeded the US as the most attractive location in which to invest in renewable energy projects, according to Ernst & Young's latest Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices. The US dropped two points in the indices, to fall behind China, after a federal Renewable Energy Standard was not enacted this summer. China entered the Country Attractiveness Indices table in December 2004 and, since then, has progressed steadily to the top of the All Renewables Index. In the last index, it was tied with the US. The US dropped two points in the indices, to fall behind China, after a federal Renewable Ene...

Northampton, Mass. – The US Embassy in Beijing monitors air quality hourly and issues reports on BeijingAir Twitter feed. One Friday late last month, (Nov. 19) the air in Beijing was so polluted, so smoggy, that the tweet had no established term to describe it. So, it simply reported that the air was “crazy bad.” I suspect we all pretty much get the idea, but let me try to be a little more precise about what “crazy bad” means. On an air quality index of 0 to 500 (the AQI), “crazy bad” is off-the-charts, beyond the 500 upper limit. The number is a measure of ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide in the air. According to the AQI, a score of zero to 50 represents good air quality, 51 to 100 means moderate air quality, and 101 to 150 is unhealthy for sensitive groups. A score between 301 to 500 means “don’t even think of breathing it if possible,” or in more formal AQI terms: “Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire popula...