trade Archives ~ Business China : news for investors in China

SMARTPHONES: Apple CEO Caught in Hard Place in US-China Tensions

By newsdoug on March 26, 2018

Bottom line: Apple’s Tim Cook and other big global CEOs active in China will need to walk a fine line to avoid being forced to take sides in ongoing US-China trade frictions.

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook was in China once again this past weekend, in what seems to be becoming his second home. This time around Cook was one of the few corporate chiefs attending the China Development Forum, a major annual conference sponsored by China’s State Council. The event is mostly peopled by academics and government officials, and thus Cook’s attendance is both a feather in Beijing’s cap and also something of a nod to Cook’s own status as a global high-tech titan as he tries to stay in the nation’s good graces.

His major proclamations at the event weren’t all that earth-shattering. But he inevitably felt compelled to comment on the Donald Trump administration’s announcement last week of new punitive tariffs on China for unfair trade practices. He didn’t venture too far into the matter, and mostly urged both sides to stay calm in the face of rising trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Read Full Post…

Trade Tone Improves Between China And The West

By newsdoug on October 14, 2014

Spring coming for China-Western trade ties?

After fraying under a steady stream of disputes over the last 2 years, China-Western trade relations took a much-needed turn for the better last week with new reports showing that Beijing and its major trading partners were taking constructive steps to reduce the tensions. Two reports indicated Beijing will take steps to reduce some of the government support it gives to emerging high-tech industries, addressing a sore spot in its trade relations with the west. Read Full Post…

US Approves Lenovo’s IBM Server Buy

By newsdoug on August 18, 2014

US security reviewer clears Lenovo’s IBM buy

A summer full of negative news for Sino-foreign trade relations got a rare piece of positive news over the weekend, with word that the US has approved the sale of IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) low-end server business to Chinese PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992). The case looks a bit like another deal between the pair of tech giants nearly a decade ago, when IBM agreed to sell its high-profile PC business to Lenovo, only to see the deal run into political headwinds before finally getting approved by Washington. But this latest approval is slightly different, as it comes against a backdrop of heightened trade and other national security tensions between China and the west, especially from the US. Read Full Post…

Summer Brings New Round Of Trade Wars

By newsdoug on May 27, 2014

After a brief cooling down period, the wars that have rattled China’s economic relationships with many of its largest trading partners were back in the headlines last week with developments in 2 cases, one involving the US and the other India. The pair of new developments comes just weeks after China levied its own punitive tariffs on a different set of products from the US and European Union. Read Full Post…

China, EU Settle Wine Dispute

By newsdoug on March 26, 2014

China achieved an important milestone in its trade relations with the west last week when it settled 2 disputes with the European Union through negotiations, a less familiar tactic that produced a similar breakthrough deal last year. Both sides should be commended for this new approach, which not only avoids damaging trade wars but also helps to build a friendlier trade relationship based on mutual trust. Read Full Post…

Yum China: Little Sheep Getting Tangled in Trade Friction? 百盛收购小肥羊案卷入中美贸易摩擦？

By newsdoug on October 5, 2011

Little Sheep: Olive branch or sacrificial lamb? The latest quarterly results from Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM) are once again all about China, with strong performance from that market salvaging an otherwise dismal period for the operator of the KFC and Pizza Hut chains. But for followers of this company, what’s equally interesting in Yum’s quarterly results announcement is what’s NOT included, namely any mention of its pending purchase of leading Chinese hot pot chain Little Sheep (HKEx: 968), which is still awaiting regulatory approval nearly 6 months after the deal was first announced. First a look at the third quarter numbers, which showed that Yum’s China business boomed in just about every way, even as operating profit in its home US market slipped 16 percent. (company announcement) Yum’s China revenue leaped 35 percent, while its China same-store sales and operating profit rose 19 percent and 7 percent, respectively. The only negative China figure in the results was store margins, which slipped to 21.3 percent this year from 25.2 percent in 2010 as inflation in China took a toll. But amid all those rosy figures, there was no mention at all of Yum’s pending $500 million acquisition of Little Sheep, a relatively straightforward deal which the company first announced in April but still hasn’t received regulatory approval. (previous post) Yum provided a brief update of sorts on the deal in its last quarterly results by mentioning it had set aside funds for the purchase, seeming to indicate it still believed the deal would get regulatory approval. (previous post) It’s hard to read too much into the failure to mention the deal in its latest results announcement, as perhaps there’s just nothing new to add. The most recent US-China trade frictions that have seen the US Senate approve a bill to punish China for currency manipulation could add an interesting twist to this deal. Beijing’s approval of the Little Sheep deal now would send a strong message that it’s committed to fair trade, and could help dispel some of the anti-China rhetoric on Capitol Hill. Still, one never knows with China, and the regulator could also choose to veto the deal in an angry response to the US Senate’s move, which would only heighten tensions. I honestly think the latter is less likely to happen as China has traditionally tried to defuse this kind of friction. Accordingly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Little Sheep deal finally approved in the next month as a goodwill gesture aimed at mollifying tensions.

Bottom line: China is likely to finally approve Yum Brands’ pending purchase of the Little Sheep hot pot chain in the next month to try to diffuse trade tensions with the US.