China :: Business :: Deals

Donald Trump got "fake news" in the U.S., and you know what? Walt Disney got "Fake Deals" in China. In 2013, Meng Dekai, a Disney executive in China, signed a deal with the mayor of Hefei to build a $1.3 billion “Disney cultural and industrial park.” It was one of several agreements with multiple cities in China that Mr. Meng apparently signed. The only problem: He was not allowed to do so. The Walt Disney Company said on Wednesday that it had parted ways with Mr. Meng — it did not say whether he resigned or was fired — after opening an investigation into allegations that he had signed deals with local governments for Disney-related projects. The brazenness of the apparent duplicity highlights the risks for foreign companies operating in China, where counterfeiting and corruption are still rampant despite repeated government campaigns to crack down. Reports of Mr. Meng’s deals across the country have also led to widespread confusion about Disne...

“It’s kind of surreal being here.” The general sentiment, no doubt, of most people on planet Earth right now, but the words of Matt Damon at the premiere of his latest film this year. The reason for his befuddlement? The film was  The Great Wall , for which he had moved to China for half a year with his family. But the premiere was taking place beneath the extravagant pagoda of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. From actual China to Los Angeles’s idea of China — no wonder Damon found it weird. Yet, as so often happens in Hollywood, the weird could well become the way of things.  The Great Wall  and its premiere are the result of what is becoming one of the most significant partnerships in show business, between the American and the Chinese film industries. Other actors will have to make the 10,500km journey between LA and Shanghai. Strangely, this is a partnership founded on mistrust. For years, China’s communist regime took a dim view of the lumi...

Not exactly a business ... Still a big deal nonetheless. A Hong Kong heir to a property fortune has been ordered to pay his ex-wife more than HK$ 1.22 billion (US$ 157 million) in one of the city's biggest divorce settlements, Hong Kong media reported Friday. High Court Justice John Saunders ruled yesterday that Samathur Li Kin-kan, the son of billionaire Samuel Tak Lee, pay Florence Tsang Chiu-wing HK$ 1.22 billion -- which represents 20 percent of the couple's assets when applying the "sharing principle." The settlement is slightly more than half the amount demanded by Tsang. Saunders said the couple lived a "lifestyle best described as just below that of a US-dollar billionaire", and ruled that Tsang, a 38-year-old solicitor, should be kept in the comfort to which she had become accustomed. Tsang reacted to the decision with "cheers and a broad smile", reports said. "I'm delighted that the proceedings have now concluded,...

Source : By Lu Chang (China Daily European Edition) For Shen Dongjun, the 22-hectare chateau in Bordeaux seemed a priceless investment and a natural addition to his new wine business, rather than being just an expensive holiday home. The idyllic Laulan Ducos, a medieval-style chateau, with surrounding vineyards that produce wine was the latest addition to Shen's business empire comprising of more than 300 jewelry stores. "I have been searching for the right vineyard for more than six years. This is exactly what I was looking for and the wine quality is outstanding," he says. "My aim is to bring these high-quality French wines to China at affordable prices." Shen, 42, is part of a new wave of Chinese investors who are snapping up wine estates across the world to quench China's growing thirst for high-quality wines. Data provided by the International Wine and Spirit Research shows that China surpassed Britain as the world's fifth-largest wine c...

Source : By Li Fangfang (China Daily) SHANGHAI - The global food and nutrition giant Nestle SA plans to double the scale of its investment in the Chinese coffee market during the next three years, said a top company executive. Heiko Schipper, managing director of Nestle Food & Beverage, Greater China region, said the move will support the company's plans to accelerate its business in the face of fierce competition in the coffee market with the most potential. "We are planning to double our investment in China, one of the key growth engines for our coffee business in the future," said Schipper, without disclosing further details. "Our coffee business has grown quite rapidly over the past five years, by 20 percent year-on-year on average. And we think we can further accelerate growth in the future by expending more effort and tailoring more products for the market," said Schipper. Having been involved in China for 20 years, Nestle is the leader in ...

General Motors to Test Chinese Plug-in Vehicle Market With Volt General Motors Co. (GM) will introduce its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car in China at an auto show on Nov. 21, and dealers will begin taking orders for the model shortly, the automaker said. This will be relatively low-volume, Kevin Wale, president of the Detroit-based companys China unit, said in a phone interview yesterday in Shanghai, declining to comment on specifics including pricing before the show in Guangzhou. Were trying to use this as a statement for technology and the beginning of the path towards electrification. GM will be first among the worlds largest automakers to sell a plug-in car in China, where rivals including Daimler AG (DAI) and Nissan Motor Co. also plan to introduce similar models. Electric-car sales in China are forecast to exceed those in the U.S. by 2020, helped by government subsidies and investment as the Asian nation, the worlds largest polluter, seeks to cut emissions, according to the...

As promised a departure from our recent focus on fashion and luxury in China. I did a Q/A with the always insightful, always entertaining and fantastic writer Benjamin Shobert of the Asia Healthcare Blog yesterday. Here is the article he published. Ben Shobert: You make reference to what you call Chinas policy of health through wealth? Can you explain where that comes from and what it means to companies looking at China as an opportunity for their healthcare business? Michael Zakkour: That phrase came from my extensive and repeated readings of the Chinese governments 12th five-year plan. I tried to formulate in my mind what the commonalities across sectors were as the country pursues growth. What I saw was an admission by China that to sustain growth and continue to move in the right direction they had to admit that the country has some unhealthy things happening. To address this, they see that they need to approach the health of the people, the country and the environmen...

DoNews, 10/17/11 Jack Ma, chairman of Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group, today announced newly revised rules for B2C e-commerce platform Taobao Mall. Merchants who belonged to the platform prior to October 10 and have ranking in the top 90% in terms of customer service (a customer satisfaction score no lower than 4.6 points) can pay fees under the old rules from January 1 to September 30, 2012 on a monthly basis, after which they will pay fees under the new rules. New merchants will pay under the old rules until January 1, when they will begin paying under the new fee structure. Alibaba Group will invest an additional RMB 1 bln in the consumer protection fund and cut merchants' 2012 consumer protection deposits in half. Alibaba Group will also provide RMB 500 mln to guarantee loans to small merchants, and will also invest RMB 300 mln towards marketing and improvements to its technology service platform. The bottom 10% in terms of customer satisfaction, however, wi...

Oriental Morning Post, 5/08/12 Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Lenovo (0992.HK) has announced plans to invest over RMB 5 bln to build a comprehensive industrial base in Wuhan, expected to go online in October 2013. The base will primarily focus on R&D, production and sales of handsets, tablets, and other mobile internet terminal products for both the domestic and overseas markets. Once online, the base is expected to generate RMB 10 bln in sales and create nearly 10,000 local jobs by 2014.

Over the weekend, Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group issued an open letter to the media and its shareholders in which it listed a total of nine online shops previously operating on its B2C and C2C e-commerce subsidiary Taobao that have been permanently shut down due to suspected bribery and other misconduct. Alibaba Group announced that compulsory measures of punishment have been implemented, arrests have taken place, and that an investigation is still underway. The company asserted that this is only the beginning of what will be a strict crack down on the acceptance of bribes from vendors on the part of Taobao staff and staff at other Alibaba subsidiaries. According to an informed source close to Alibaba, internal corruption at the company began as early as 2009, when the conglomerate experienced rapid growth and recruited a large number of new employees. The source reported that Alibaba currently employs over 25,000 people, making management and monitoring increasingly di...

Chinese telecom equipment and terminal manufacturer Huawei has recently hired global consulting firm Jack Morton Worldwide to help the company implement a US marketing campaign. Huawei plans to start investing in the marketing campaign in H2 2012 to improve Huawei's brand awareness. The company is in the midst of a drastic change from a low-end manufacturer to a hopeful leader in innovation. Because Huawei does not have much of a name for itself in the US, it will be hard for it to promote its high-end handsets like the Ascend D Quad. Although packing a quad-core processor, the Ascend D Quad has not elicited much response from American wireless carriers. Chinese telecom equipment and terminal manufacturer ZTE (0763.HK; 000063.SZ) is staying more low key by delaying any branding of its American handset offerings as it prefers to build strong relationships with the carriers themselves.

Source : China Retail News Hero Group, a leading European dairy export company, has announced its formal entry into the Chinese infant formula market. The company will launch its Hero Nutradefense brand products in China and the products will be sold via Suzhou-based Jampoo Union Corp, its exclusive general agency in China including Hong Kong and Macau. Jampoo Union will also be responsible for the sales of Hero Group's other products such as infant nutritional food supplements and jam in China. Peter Amon, chief executive officer of the group, told local media that Hero Nutradefense is one of their finest brands and they are proud to launch this product in the Chinese market. They hope to be able to contribute to the healthy growth of Chinese babies. He also said that the group collects milk source information from all over the world and adjusts the milk formula according to local demands. Their products were produced in the Netherlands and only the purest Dutch milk is used in th...

Qilu Evening News, 5/02/12 At a recent animation conference held in Hangzhou, China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) announced the launch of its animation terminal, "Yi Zhi Yi Ben," an Android tablet PC made especially for Chinese youth under 12. The Yi Zhi Yi Ben is an edutainment tablet, equipped with an interactive "Educational Park" applications platform, animations, and SNS value-added services including games and a microblog. The tablet can be set by parents to filter out inappropriate content, and its social networking platforms will be strictly managed to prevent data leakage, monitor fraud, and limit the time children spend online. China Telecom has produced the entertainment-education tablet in cooperation with Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Hisense (600060.SH), Xiamen-based enterprise e-mail and software provider 35.com (300051.SZ), and Shenzhen-based MP3, tablet and handset maker Shenzhen Thomson Digital Technology, among others.

Netease Tech, 4/28/12 Chengdu-based mobile app developer Pinguo Technology recently received first-round funding led by Gobi Partners for its Camera 360 app. Matrix Partners, which previously provided angel investment for the project, also participated in the investment. Gu Rui, CMO for Camera 360, said that the size of the investment could not be revealed for the time being, adding that all of the funds had arrived in the company's accounts. Pinguo's Camera360 app allows users to add various effects, such as color filters, borders, and other styles to photos they have taken with their handsets. Gu revealed that the Camera 360 app has 30 mln users. A Windows Phone app will be the company's next move, following up on the existing Android app (which has more than 20 mln users) and iOS app (which has roughly 10 mln users). According to an industry source, Camera 360 announced that it had received a USD six-figure angel investment from Matrix Partners only four months aft...

Sohu IT, 4/28/12 According to an internal e-mail reportedly from Gaopeng - the group buy joint venture of Groupon and Tencent (0700.HK) - Tencent is continuing to consolidate its group buy properties. QQ Tuan will phase out group buy offers from other sites, in favor of offers from Gaopeng and FTuan. FTuan and Gaopeng, meanwhile, will connect their backend systems over the next two months. QQ Tuan had previously been operated by the FTuan team. A Gaopeng employee revealed that senior Gaopeng management had orally notified employees recently that Gaopeng would be acquired by FTuan. Gaopeng simultaneously began liquidating assets at its Beijing and Shanghai offices. An industry source told Sohu IT that Tencent will trade its stake in Gaopeng to FTuan in exchange for a share in FTuan of equivalent value, based on Gaopeng's current valuation. Tencent and Gaopeng have also reached an agreement under which Gaopeng will become an investor, and will be replaced by FTuan in the contro...

China's Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Taxation recently announced a series of preferential income tax policies for software and IC enterprises. An industry source said that the new policies were a more highly ramified update to the Policies for the Further Encouragement of Software and IC Industry Development, released in February 2011 by the State Council, and will directly benefit enterprises in the targeted areas. IC manufacturers who produce 0.8-micron or smaller circuitry will have all income taxes waived for two years starting from the first year they become profitable, and will have half of the legally designated 25% income tax waived from the third to fourth years. Manufacturers of integrated circuits smaller than 0.25 microns and enterprises that have invested more than RMB 8 bln in IC manufacturing will be subject to a corporate income tax rate of 15%; companies that have been in business for 15 or more years will have all corporate income taxes waived...

Shanghai Media Group IPTV subsidiary Shanghai BesTV New Media (600637.SH) recently signed a strategic partnership agreement in Beijing with IPTV operator Guo Guang Oriental Network, a subsidiary of China Radio International's online TV platform China International Broadcasting Network (CIBN), marking the launch of a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two companies on Internet television. Guo Guang Oriental and BesTV will share international video content and develop a bidirectional system for the exchange of domestic and international cultural content. BesTV will offer its core technology platform and operating experience to Guo Guang Oriental's internet television business, enabling both companies to boost their service capabilities and improve user experience. The two companies will also cooperate on multiple projects, including new media programming production and IPTV platform technology connectivity.

Our post last week about a European soccer star signing with Chinese domestic league team Shanghai Shenhua included questions about why China, with a passion for the game, cannot produce world class players or teams, domestically or internationally. Today I found the Dec. 17 article The Economist posted. Now I feel like I have some answers. Why China fails at football Little red card The telling reasons why, at least in football, China is unlikely to rule the world in the near future Dec 17th 2011 | from the print edition The Buddha tells the people he can fulfil only one of their wishes. Someone asks: Could you lower the price of property in China so that people can afford it? Seeing the Buddha frown in silence, the person makes another wish: Could you make the Chinese football team qualify for a World Cup? After a long sigh, the Buddha says: Lets talk about property prices. THE pass back to the goalkeeper seemed routine for Qingdao Hailifeng FC in its match against Sichuan FC in...

Techweb, 12/22/11 Account information for more than 6 mln registered users of online community Chinese Software Developer Network (CSDN,net) has reportedly been leaked online. Industry sources today added that account information has also been leaked for 8 mln and 20 mln users, respectively, of the 7k7k and 178.com gaming websites. CSDN has confirmed the news, saying the leaked information is from a 2009 backup of the site's database, although the exact cause for the leak has yet to be determined. Online sources say that the leaks were deliberate and users of Chinese SNS sites Renren and Kaixin001, the Tianya online community and matchmaking sites Jiayuan.com and Baihe.com will be the next targets.

Marbridge Consulting, 12/20/11 China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for November 2011. November saw the net addition of 12.13 mln new mobile subscribers. China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) added 5.43 mln new mobile subscribers, pushing the operator's total mobile user base to 644.32 mln, of which a total of 48.01 mln subscribers used China Mobile's TD-SCDMA terminals during the month. China Mobile added 2.68 mln new TD-SCDMA subscribers in November. China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) added 3.60 mln new mobile subscribers, bringing its total to 195.97 mln. Of the new mobile subs added, 0.21 mln were GSM subscribers, bringing China Unicom's total GSM user base to 159.44 mln, and 3.38 mln were WCDMA subscribers, pushing the company's total WCDMA user base to 36.53 mln subscribers. China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) added 3.10 mln CDMA subs, taking its total to 123.39 mln, of which 33.35 mln were CDMA2000 EV-DO subsc...