After noting last week that Bank of China (HKEx: 3988; Shanghai: 601988) was rapidly losing ground to rival big 4 lender ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398 ) on the global stage, the former is fighting back with its own baby step into Africa through a new tie-up with a local partner. The new alliance with South Africa’s Nedbank looks relatively lightweight on the surface, and probably won’t make a huge difference to Bank of China’s Africa business right away. But I still have to commend Bank of China for finally getting a bit more aggressive on the global stage, and would encourage it to make similar moves into other developing markets. It could also eventually buy a strategic stake in Nedbank, following ICBC’s successful example through its own similar tie-up with South Africa’s Standard Bank. Read Full Post…
The headlines have been buzzing with news about the rollout of the latest edition WeChat, which is being called a major overhaul as operator Tecent (HKEx: 700) tries to commercialize the wildly popular mobile instant messaging service. At the same time, media are reporting that WeChat has achieved another major milestone in its new tie-up with telco China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), with up to a million people pre-registering for the new Unicom-based WeChat service in the first 2 days after it became available. Read Full Post…
China should be proud of itself for recently using negotiations to avoid a trade war with the EU over solar panels; but it is quickly falling back into old behavioral patterns that could cause a similar dispute involving telecoms equipment to quickly become a new crisis. My suggestion to Beijing is to seize the momentum from the recent solar success to quickly open new negotiations to try and resolve the new looming dispute over telecoms equipment sold in the EU by industry leaders Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063). But instead of taking such a proactive approach, we’re seeing signs that Beijing is falling back into its old habit of not doing anything and instead waiting until a new crisis erupts before taking any action to try and resolve the matter. Read Full Post…
Local media have been buzzing this week with word of a new alliance between the unlikely partners of Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and Qunar, 2 of China’s top online travel sites. The new alliance is actually rather modest, but is more surprising because the pair of companies are bitter rivals whose battle for market share has resulted in a recent series of price wars that have hit Ctrip’s earnings and threatened its market leading position. The companies have also said they will explore future cooperation, leading to the question of whether an outright merger might be in the future. Read Full Post…
Gross! That was my first reaction on reading about the latest food safety scandal in Shanghai, which involved the recycling of paste used to fill the famous mooncakes given out give out en masse each year during the Mid Autumn Festival. I’m not a big fan of mooncakes anyhow, but this latest revelation in the never-ending series of food scandals across China certainly won’t make me any more likely to eat these unavoidable treats that suddenly appear in stores every September or October. Read Full Post…
I have to admit that I feel just a little guilty for my constant critiques of China’s telecoms regulator, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), for its notorious slowness at doing just about anything that could create a more competitive telecoms industry. After all, the MIIT is certainly trying to improve the country’s telecoms landscape, even if the glacial pace of change often means that China is years behind the rest of the world in new innovations. The regulator’s notorious slowness is once again in the headlines these last few days, with word that the MIIT will soon allow consumers in 3 provinces to keep their phone numbers when changing mobile carriers, a practice known as number portability. Read Full Post…
Beijing is returning to a time-tested tactic from its PR playbook with a sudden flurry of high-profile probes of major multinationals, which are being accused of everything from price manipulation to bribery. This latest series of “scandals” has snared some of the most active foreign firms in China, including pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, milk powder maker Mead Johnson and packaging products titan Tetra Pak. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 6. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Fonterra CEO Apologizes, Sees China Dairy Curbs Lifted Within Days (English article)
Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat v5.0 Adds Game Center, In-App Payment (English article)
Concord Green Energy to Buy 5 Solar Plants from Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) (PRNewswire)
Huawei To Open London Office To Manage Global Finances (English article)
Chinese milk makers must be quietly pleased about the country’s latest dairy scandal, since for once the news centers on a foreign and not a domestic firm. In this case the news has been flowing nonstop over the weekend, following a warning from New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra (New Zealand: FCZ) that some of its milk powder contains bacteria that can cause botulism, a rare but sometimes fatal illness. Fonterra discovered the bacteria in some of its powder that it sells to other dairy companies, including at least 5 Chinese companies. China has halted the import of all milk powder from New Zealand and Australia until the situation is resolved. (English article) Read Full Post…
Global auto giant General Motors’ (GM) (NYSE: GM) announcement of a major adjustment to its international corporate structure last week demonstrated its commitment to China, grabbing headlines and winning goodwill from Chinese consumers and Beijing. The move reflects a broader savvy policy of big investments and other corporate actions designed to highlight the importance of the market for GM, a strategy that others like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) should follow to boost their prospects in China. Read Full Post…
When is the merger of search sites operated by 2 major media and a top telco not a very big news story? The answer: When all 3 of those companies are big state-run behemoths that have a poor track record for innovation in the fast-moving Internet world. That’s my personal assessment on reading news that Panguso and Jike, the respective online search sites of the Xinhua news agency and People’s Daily newspaper, have merged their operations to form a new company. (English article) In addition to its Xinhua backing, Panguso counts dominant mobile carrier China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) as its other major stakeholder. Read Full Post…
