china

A roundup of the latest syndicated loan market news.

An undisclosed institutional seller surprises investors by launching a deal after the Hong Kong market had its worst fall in six months, but thanks to a generous discount, the demand was fairly solid.

Nomura snatches Wendy Liu from RBS to manage its China equity research products.

Steve Hall, head of Europe and Asia at Tradeweb, talks about the expansion of multi-dealer electronic trading platforms and their implementation within Asia.

We reveal the results of our annual poll to find Asia's top companies. Today, India.

The move by the US Department of Commerce against rising imports has raised the threat of a trade dispute and divided the American solar industry

High-end jeweller aims to raise $1bn by selling 25-35% of group in what would be Hong Kong’s second largest listing so far this year

Chinese B2C e-commerce website Dangdang.com announced a new evening delivery service in eight cities in China, extending the company's delivery time to 22:00. According to Dangdang.com, the new service is currently available in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Shenyang, Wuxi, Jinan, and Zhengzhou. In these cities, consumers will have a new option for delivery period, which [...]

With English soccer side Manchester City winning its first Premier League title for the first time in 44 years, in part due to generous support from its financial backers in Abu Dhabi, Chinese fans are now also wondering whether money really can buy success.

By Xiaolei Gu May 17 – The Beijing Public Security Bureau announced the commencement of a three-month campaign beginning May 15 to “clean up” illegally entered/stayed/employed foreigners through its Sina Weibo account in an effort to establish a comprehensive mechanism for managing foreigners in China. According to the Sina Weibo announcement, the Beijing Public Security Bureau will check key neighborhoods, carry out regular crackdowns in certain areas, and review visa applications more strictly and more carefully. Moreover, the Bureau also encourages public reporting of suspicious cases in the city. Due to this “hard strike” by the government, it’s important for … Continue reading →

Bank of America's China economist Lu Ting discusses continued weakness in Chinese bank lending and the role of banks in boosting Chinese growth.

During my recent Los Angeles trip, I met with the person tasked with taking his company’s service business into China.  For about an hour we two talked of pretty much nothing but the difficulties he and his company would face.  Being the lawyer that I am, I am not sure I talked of anything other than problems and risks. Finally, the putative China head remarked, “I know, everybody is telling us we are crazy for even trying to do business in China.”  I replied, “Wait a second.  I never for a moment told you not to go into China. In fact, I am of the view that you have to go into China. Within about five years, businesses like yours will be making a fortune in China and if you don’t go now, you will have almost no chance of being one of them.”

I then told him of my disappointment with American wineries.  More than five years ago, at least a handful of good-sized wineries came to us with plans for going into China, but all of them backed out when they realized the money and time it would take for them to “make it there.”  China’s wine market is now dominated by French and Australian and Chinese wines and when it comes to everyday mainstream wines, U.S. wines are just not on the list. And because they were so late, I fear they never will be. At least two of the wineries who chose not to go into China have told me that they agree with this assessment.

Today I received the following email:

Dan,

I am a frequent reader and big fan of the China Law Blog. Back in the beginning of March, you posted a multi-part article titled “The End Of Cheap China, Part VI. Vietnam, Burma/Myanmar, Globalization, The Next Big Thing, And Falling Wages.” In this article you mentioned Myanmar and asked the readers what we thought of it as “the next big thing.”

I recently came across an article from the Economic Intelligence Unit called “Myanmar: White Elephant or the New Tiger Economy?” Although its an abbreviated version of the report (the full version requires a subscription), the article goes into adequate detail regarding Burma as a possibility for future investment. I attached the report to this email, so you could check it out.

To me, Burma seems like an intriguing possibility for future investment, but the government needs to undergo significant political reform in order for foreign companies to invest/relocate there.  With a large population, large quantities of untapped natural resources, and countless underdeveloped industries, Burma has much potential. We just have to wait and see how political and economic reforms play out. Also central to Burmese development is the reduction of military rule and the expansion of political opposition and ethnic minority rights.

What do you think?

I am of the strong view that the advantage goes to the first movers and we will in June be putting our money where our mouths are as both Steve and I head there on a fact-finding mission with a good friend/business consultant who is fluent in Burmese. We are going there on behalf of a non-American client, but we are not both getting paid to do so and we plan to stay much longer than necessary for just the one matter. While there, we plan to meet with and seek to establish relationships with pretty much each and every law firm in Rangoon with a semblance of an international practice and with various government officials regarding foreign (particularly American investment).  In other words, we plan on getting in on the ground floor of doing business in Myanmar/Burma so that when American companies decide economic and/or political reforms have sufficiently advanced for them to go there as well, we will be the American veterans in the field.  Are we putting tens of thousands of dollars (in billable time and expenses) at risk?  Yes, but we have no choice.  You either start doing business in Myanmar/Burma now or you may never get the chance.

What do you think?  And here’s another question for you. Why do American companies always seem to follow Korean and Japanese and French and German companies into places like Myanmar?  Politics? Conservative business culture? Short term profit mentality? Bigger market at home so less need to expand overseas?  You tell me.

China’s surprisingly high taxes on goods from makeup to golf clubs could hold the key to brining its economy back to life.

Jiepang, China’s location-based service today announced a brand new Jiepang 5 app in a celebration for the company’s two-year anniversary.

The new app, which according to David Liu co-founder and CEO of the Beijing-based startup would be made available in App Store soon, will adopt a new interface design that highlights some new functions like Explore and Food Sharing with an aim to better connect location sharing behaviors and offline consumption, literally, give users a better reason to check in and share their locations.

Jiepang’s 3 million users generated an aggregate of 50 million check-ins globally since its inception two years ago with more than 8.2 million photos uploaded.

It also has established close partnerships with over thousands of brands. More than 9000 local merchants have employed Jiepang’s check-in service to provide people who check into their venue with coupons or discounts. This could be deemed as Jiepang’s ongoing effort to monetize its service, speaking of which, the firm has done some very inspiring exploration in making profit through O2O trend and LBS-based ads. For example, with a huge amount of data generated everyday that contains users’ behaviors, all Jiepang could do is figuring out a way to effectively use the data for target advertising to better match people and locations, not in a intrusive way of course.

Location-based advertising is a rather new concept in China and the market needs to be educated by pioneers like, say, Jiepang and other LBS services such as Shanda’s Qieke.

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3. Over 65% Chinese App Developers Are Newcomers To The Business

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The West is obsessed with the rise of China, says curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. But where do the Chinese think they’re heading?