China :: Business :: Deals

What's Happening Starbucks to Expand Range of Instant Beverages in China, Schultz Says Coca-Colas First Quarter 2011 China Highlights Yum Gets Hungry for Growth in China Golden arches cooks up long-term China strategy Master Kong Allegedly Disguises Price Hikes China Imprisons 14 in Tainted Milk Case Growing concern over school milk program Demotion over expensive drink

Source : Wall Street Journal By Laurie Burkitt Proposal to Take Control of Hot-Pot Chain Little Sheep Indicates New Strategy in U.S. Company's Biggest Market BEIJINGYum Brands Inc.'s preliminary offer to take full control of Little Sheep Group Ltd., the operator of a popular hot-pot chain in China, has signaled a new growth strategy for Yum's largest market. Analysts said the move indicates that Yum, which has 3,800 KFC and Pizza Hut outlets in China, is looking beyond pizza and chicken to establish its own presence in the rapidly growing market for Chinese casual dining. Yum bought a 20% stake in Little Sheep in 2009 and increased its stake to 27.2% last year. Yum said after the close of Hong Kong trading Tuesday that the company had submitted a preliminary proposal to buy all of Little Sheep's outstanding shares, apart from a minority stake to be owned by the chairman and other founders. Little Sheep Chairman Zhang Gang owns 2.4% of the company. Possible Way Internati...

Source : By Zhou Wenting (China Daily) Health scares continue to damage public confidence, reports Zhou Wenting in Beijing. A national school milk program intended to improve children's health has soured again. On Friday morning, 251 children at Yuhe Town Central Primary School in Yulin, Shaanxi province, fell ill after drinking school milk produced by the Mengniu Dairy Group. They were sent to hospital for treatment, and were all discharged by the following day. Test results released on Tuesday afternoon said the milk met China's national standards for food safety, and no pathogens were detected in the milk or the students' vomit and feces. They did not say why 251 students suffered from the discomforts collectively. The tests were conducted by Yulin's Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the results were announced by the city's food safety committee. On Tuesday evening, Mengniu said on its website that it would work with the school and the local health de...

Marbridge on Holiday May 2 Marbridge Consulting, 4/29/11 Marbridge will be closed Monday, May 2 in observance of the Chinese national Labor Day holiday. We will resume business on Tuesday, May 3.

Download this podcast Length 7:10 Download audio file (20110427_ip.mp3) In the news this week was the story of a jury award of $2.3 billion to a division of St. Jude Medical against a Chinese medial device company started by a former employee. The details are specific to the case, but the news was enough to get Technomic Asia principal Michael Zakkour on one of his favorite topics, protecting intellectual property. Zakkour was traveling in the US on his way to southern China, when the China Business Podcast caught up with him for an interview on IP security strategies. There are two main components to IP strategy for companies considering China operations, 1) a significant vetting process, the cornerstone of which is based on relationships that are proven over time; 2) a regularly enforced process to know who is working on the key areas of your product. This means organizations are notified when personnel changes in specified roles among their vendors. Both are easy to articulat...

Digu to Raise USD 25 Mln in Additional Funding Netease Tech, 4/28/11 Chinese location-based service (LBS) mobile SNS Digu has disclosed that it plans to raise USD 25 mln in two more rounds of funding. CEO Li Song revealed that Digu's mobile applications have been downloaded more than 2 mln times. Li added that he expects that the LBS social networking market will double in 2011, reaching RMB 12 mln. Li said that the company is currently working with 30 major brands to provide users with membership cards or discount coupons. Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "Digu Plans to Raise USD 30 Mln in Additional Funding" MD 4/06/11 issue.

Microsoft China Opens First Experience Store SZ-wsh, 4/27/11 Microsoft China has announced the formal launch of its first genuine products experience store in Zhongguancun, Beijing. The store will be operated by licensed Microsoft distributors and mainly sell Microsoft software, such as Windows and Office, and accessories, including keyboards and mice. The experience store will have specialized sales consultants to help the users better understand, experience and purchase Microsoft hardware and software products.