China Economy Forum

[TaiShang]

Alibaba's Jack Ma seeking stake in SCMP publisher: Bloomberg
2015-11-24 01:50:38 GMT2015-11-24 09:50:38(Beijing Time) Agencies

Alibaba CEO Jack Ma gestures as he is introduced to participate in a panel discussion at the APEC CEO Summit in Manila, Philippines, November 18, 2015.

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, is in talks to buy a stake in the publisher of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP), Bloomberg reported on Monday citing unidentified sources familiar with the matter.

The discussions were at an advanced stage and a signing ceremony would be announced soon, Bloomberg said. It did not give the size of the stake, financial details or mention how Ma, who controls various investment vehicles, would invest.

Alibaba and SCMP declined to comment.

There has been speculation this month that Ma or his e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba were in talks to take a stake in the newspaper's parent SCMP Group Ltd. The China Daily newspaper reported rumors of the investment on Nov. 9.

The investment would add to Alibaba and its affiliates' growing media empire, the latest in a string of deals in news and advertising.

In June, Alibaba paid $194 million for a stake in the mainland's China Business News.

Ma has had a fraught relationship with the SCMP in the past. In 2013, a reporter for the newspaper quit after quoting Ma as having made remarks in support of Beijing's violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

SCMP Group's shares have been suspended since February 2013 because it did not meet the minimum required percentage of total issued share capital available on the public market.

 

[Economic superpower]

Alibaba's Jack Ma seeking stake in SCMP publisher: Bloomberg
2015-11-24 01:50:38 GMT2015-11-24 09:50:38(Beijing Time) Agencies

Alibaba CEO Jack Ma gestures as he is introduced to participate in a panel discussion at the APEC CEO Summit in Manila, Philippines, November 18, 2015.

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, is in talks to buy a stake in the publisher of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP), Bloomberg reported on Monday citing unidentified sources familiar with the matter.

The discussions were at an advanced stage and a signing ceremony would be announced soon, Bloomberg said. It did not give the size of the stake, financial details or mention how Ma, who controls various investment vehicles, would invest.

Alibaba and SCMP declined to comment.

There has been speculation this month that Ma or his e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba were in talks to take a stake in the newspaper's parent SCMP Group Ltd. The China Daily newspaper reported rumors of the investment on Nov. 9.

The investment would add to Alibaba and its affiliates' growing media empire, the latest in a string of deals in news and advertising.

In June, Alibaba paid $194 million for a stake in the mainland's China Business News.

Ma has had a fraught relationship with the SCMP in the past. In 2013, a reporter for the newspaper quit after quoting Ma as having made remarks in support of Beijing's violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

SCMP Group's shares have been suspended since February 2013 because it did not meet the minimum required percentage of total issued share capital available on the public market.

Chinese companies should buy up all the media groups and install pro-Beijing journalists.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Chinese companies should buy up all the media groups and install pro-Beijing journalists.

It seems you don't understand market dynamics my friend.

By installing all pro-Beijing journalists, the reputation of the paper will take a hit. People will blame it for being censored. And people will just switch to other media and newspapers.

 

[bobsm]

China agrees railway deals with Hungary, Serbia

English.news.cn | 2015-11-24 20:41:50 | Editor: huaxia

SUZHOU, Jiangsu, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- China signed separate deals with Hungary and Serbia to construct and revamp a rail link between the Serbian and Hungarian capitals on Tuesday.

Details of the two deals, made on the sidelines of an annual summit meeting between Chinese and Central and Eastern European (CEE) leaders, were not immediately available, but Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged earlier in the day that construction of the railway would be underway by the end of this year and be finished within two years.

Earlier reports said the high-speed rail link could cut travel time between Budapest and Belgrade by more than half.

The project for the modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest railway was initially agreed on in 2013 at the China-Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries leaders' meeting that took place in Bucharest, while at last year's summit held in Belgrade, China, Hungary and Serbia signed a memorandum of understanding.

At that point, Macedonia and Greece both expressed their willingness to partake in the project, which plans to turn Piraeus, the main port of Greece, into a Chinese hub for trade with Europe.

The cooperation plan for the construction of the railway was signed at the beginning of this year in Belgrade at a meeting for the Trilateral Group of China, Hungary and Serbia for Traffic and Infrastructure Cooperation. The plan set dates for certain phases of the project.

According to the plan, the construction of the railway should begin by the end of 2015, after a feasibility study and financial model are agreed upon, with the railway scheduled to be fully completed in 2017.

Once completed, the railway will help create a fast lane for import and export of products between China and Europe.

"The railway not only connects Serbia with Hungary, it also links up to the rail network in southern Europe," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told reporters later on Tuesday.


China agrees railway deals with Hungary, Serbia - Xinhua | English.news.cn

 

[bobsm]

PowerChina to Build Zambia’s Largest Hydropower Station
Posted By: TIO Editoron: 24/11/2015

POWER Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) announced its subsidiary Sinohydro Corporation signed Zambia’s largest hydro power station contract, with contractual value of USD 1.566 billion.

Lower Kafue Gorge Hydro power Station is the first hydro power station invested and developed by Zambia in 40 years, with a designed installed capacity of 750,000 kilowatts, which will lift Zambia’s existing power generation capacity by 38 per cent, meet the country’s electricity demand in the future five to ten years and provide a stable power protection for the mining and agricultural development.

In the first ten months of this year, China’s new contracts for foreign contracted projects totaled CNY 921.53 billion, growing 18.3 per cent year on year.


PowerChina to Build Zambia’s Largest Hydropower Station | The Independent Observer Zambia

 

[TaiShang]

Xinjiang to boost power grid with huge investment
Source: Xinhua | November 26, 2015, Thursday |

In the next five years, northwest China’s Xinjiang region will invest 200 billion yuan (US$31 billion) in building power grids to connect the region to the country’s east, Pakistan and central Asian countries.

Resources-rich Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the core area for the Silk Road Economic Belt, will create power transmission lines by 2020 as it builds the “Power Silk Road,” said a source with the Xinjiang Electric Power Company under the State Grid Corp of China.

The grid projects are an important infrastructure plan for the region, guaranteeing power supply for local residents and enterprises in Xinjiang, said the company.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September that China proposes discussing a global energy network to meet global power demand with clean and green alternatives.

To build a global energy network coincides with the trend for low-carbon, efficient and balanced energy distribution, said Zhao Qingbo, an analyst with the State Grid.

Clean energy like solar and wind power must be integrated into grids to realize large-scale development, said Zhao.

Xinjiang’s energy network will also help narrow development gaps between different regions, he added.

China began to purchase electricity from Russia in 1992. Currently, Heilongjiang Province in northeast China has four operating power transmission lines connecting Russia.

This year, the Heilongjiang Electric Power Company will import 3.6 billion kilowatt-hours of power from Russia, or 5.4 percent of the power sold in the province.

“China and Russia both benefit from the commercial power cooperation,” Li Changlin, the company’s deputy general manger, said.

The implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative will push the interconnection of grids in Asia, said Liu Xiaosheng, a professor of electric engineering at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang.

The China-proposed initiative refers to a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia to Europe and Africa through the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Liu Zhenya, president of the State Grid, said the country will accelerate grid interconnectivity with neighboring countries such as Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Laos, Nepal and Thailand in the coming decade.

He estimated that the global energy network will be basically completed by 2050.

It is estimated that from 2016 to 2030, China’s annual investment in clean energy and related infrastructure projects will grow to 820 billion yuan, according to Liu.

By the end of 2020, China aims to increase non-fossil energy to about 15 percent of the total primary energy consumption and raise the share of renewable energy in production.

In 2020, China’s installed hydro, wind and solar power capacity will reach 350 million, 240 million and 100 million kw, mainly in the west and north regions. The current operating capacity is about 482 million kW in China.

Transnational grids already operate in Europe, North America and Southern Africa.

Global energy network construction faces some practical problems such as the high cost of clean energy in the short run, huge investment and operating models in the field, according to industry analysts.

 

[Martian2]

Taiwan's environmental nazis | My comment on Taipei Times

News story: Protests target Taichung science park and TSMC - Taipei Times

 

[Martian2]

China discovers 5 billion tonne coal deposit

Largest coal mine identified in east China - China.org.cn

 

[bobsm]

S. Korean parliament ratifies free trade agreement with China

English.news.cn | 2015-11-30 16:34:02 | Editor: huaxia

SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's parliament on Monday ratified its free trade agreement (FTA) with China during the plenary session.

The ratification bill on the China-South Korea free trade accord was passed through the National Assembly by a majority of 196 to 33 with 36 abstentions.

China and South Korea signed the bilateral FTA in June after three years of negotiations. Under the deal, the two sides will eliminate tariffs on more than 90 percent of traded goods each within 20 years after implementation.

South Korea expected the free trade accord with China to raise its real GDP by 0.96 percentage points and create about 53,000 new jobs in the next 10 years.

The South Korean government said in a statement that it will make best efforts to implement the deal within this year by minimizing necessary local procedures and closely consulting with the Chinese side.

Seoul anticipated that the FTA with China will help boost its exports, which have been suffering this year from the global economic slowdown. South Korea's export tumbled 15.9 percent in October from a year earlier, logging the biggest monthly reduction in more than six years.

S. Korean parliament ratifies free trade agreement with China - Xinhua | English.news.cn

 

[Martian2]

IMF Adds China's Yuan to Basket of Top Currencies - ABC News

 

[Martian2]

China's Yuan will have third-highest IMF SDR weight at 10.92 percent

Yuan Trades Higher Offshore as IMF Approves a Reserve Currency - Bloomberg Business

"The [IMF] fund said the yuan would have a 10.92 percent weighting in the basket, the third largest following the dollar’s 41.73 percent and the euro’s 30.93 percent. The yen has a weighting of 8.33 percent and the pound 8.09 percent."

 

[Martian2]

China is still outgrowing India | CNBC is wrong

The mainstream news stories are wrong. India is not outgrowing China. They forgot to account for Indian currency depreciation.

News story: India economic growth outpaces China, RBI seen holding rates | CNBC
----------
My comment:

Indian currency fell by 10%. Thus, Indian adjusted growth is only 6.7%.

China's currency has remained stable. However, the Indian Rupee has depreciated by a whopping 10%. Thus, the real Indian growth is only 6.7% (or 7.4% x 0.9 = 6.7%).

Since China grew at 6.9%, this means China is still outgrowing India's 6.7%.

 

[TaiShang]

Chinese investors buy 13% stake in Man City group
December 1, 2015

Man City group sells 13% stake to Chinese investors.


A group of Chinese investors have paid 400 million U.S. dollars for a minority stake in the company that owns Manchester City, one of England's top premiership clubs, it was announced Tuesday.

City Football Group said the sale of the 13 percent holding to "high profile" Chinese institutions, which include China Media Capital Holdings - a leading media and sports business - values the group at 2 billion U.S.dollars.

The deal comes just weeks after China's President Xi Jinping visited Manchester City's Etihad Stadium during his state visit to Britain.

A statement on Manchester City's official website said: "The deal will create an unprecedented platform for the growth of CFG clubs and companies in China and internationally, borne out of CFG's ability to provide a wealth of industry expertise and resources to the rapidly developing Chinese football industry."

It is the first time since the transformational Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008 that there has been a change in the group's shareholder base.

As well as owning Manchester City, the City Football Group also owns clubs in the U.S., Australia, and Japan.

Today's statement added: "The announcement follows more than six months of discussions among the parties to find the optimum model and associated strategies for the partnership."

CFG said the cash from the share acquisition will be used by City Football Group to fund its China growth, further its international business expansion opportunities and further develop CFG infrastructure assets.

The statement added: "The CFG/CMC partnership is predicated on the opportunity to create new value for CFG in China and beyond by working with CMC, CITIC Capital and the Chinese football industry."

The deal will see new shares issued in City Football Group in addition to the ones held by the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), the investment and development company privately owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Prior to this Chinese investment the Sheikh was the sole shareholder of City Football Group.

The consortium of Chinese investors will be represented on the board of City Football Group Holding Company by Li Ruigang, chairman of China Media Capital.

 

[Martian2]

Taiwan should follow Hong Kong in signing TISA with China

My comment on Taipei Times.

China’s economy to beat estimates by slim margin - Taipei Times

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Hong Kong and China Sign Trade in Services Agreement - China Briefing News

 

[Martian2]

Taiwan's Quanta Storage lands orders for its TM5 robots

Taiwan's Quanta, which is the world's largest computer notebook Original Design Manufacturer (ODM), is branching out into robotics. Quanta was successful in securing orders for its TM5 industrial robots.

This is necessary, because sooner-or-later China's Lenovo will earnestly compete in the notebook computer business. Taiwan's multinationals need to find new technological areas to avoid mainland Chinese competition.

Quanta Storage lands orders for TM5 robots | DigiTimes