http://www.engagingchina.com/blog Understanding China's new economy and its impact on western businesses en-us Fri, 16 May 2008 08:32:10 +0200 Main Page Blogware Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/25/3313509.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/25/3313509.html Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:57:38 +0200 Spansion, the US-listed maker of flash memory chips, has struck a deal with China's SMIC in a bid to get closer to China's electronics industry. Flash memory is a cut-throat business and the pricing pressures are increasing as Chinese electronics companies make great inroads into the mobile phone and consumer electronics markets... hi-tech Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/25/3313023.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/25/3313023.html Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:38:55 +0200 Betex, the London-listed bookmaker focussed on China, is anything but the sure-cert bet it once seemed. Indeed, investors now risk losing their shirts as the company has been delisted from London's Aim market... consumer finance Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/24/3311561.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/24/3311561.html Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:12:57 +0200 The BlackBerry, the de rigeur handheld device for alpha males, has finally arrived in China. Chinese regulators did not approve the BlackBerry handsets for sale in China until the first quarter of this year and Canada's RIM, the manufacturer, had to team up with Alcatel-Lucent, which has a Chinese JV, to get the device approved... hi-tech Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/24/3311473.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/24/3311473.html Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:28:11 +0200 What a difference two years and a US credit squeeze makes. Once, stock brokers were seen as the untouchables of China's financial sector. Fast forward to today and the news that Citic Securities is to invest $1bn for a 6% stake in Bear Stearns, the US investment bank, hard hit by the credit squeeze. Equally surprising, the US firm is reciprocating... finance Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/24/3310737.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/24/3310737.html Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:08:38 +0200 Spain's Gamesa, the world's second largest wind energy company, is making a big bet on China with investments totalling €60m planned for the next few years. The investment will be split between boosting production at four Chinese manufacturing facilities and investing in new wind farms... Main Page Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/4/3269968.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/4/3269968.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:59:05 +0200 Cookson, the UK-based ceramics manufacturer, sees big opportunities in China's solar cell manufacturing industry and plans to build a second crucible manufacturing facility in China to copy with strong demand. All production from this facility will be supplied to Glory Silicon Energy... energy manufacturing Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/4/3269924.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/4/3269924.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:13:54 +0200 DSM, the Dutch nutritional products firm, plans to restructure its Chinese manufacturing sites. The announcement is interesting on two counts. First, it shows that restructurings are not confined to manufacturers' "legacy" installations in the west. Second, its interesting to see DSM stressing how it is working to reduce the inevitable social impact of the factory closure.... manufacturing Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/4/3269878.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/4/3269878.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:36:43 +0200 Tibco, the US software company, has strengthened its relationship with China's Worksoft in the latest development that shows the growing maturing of China's software development industry. Tibco specialises in middleware -- the "plumbing" of business software projects -- and this arcane area of the software market has not historically been seen as a big opportunity in China... hi-tech Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/4/3269709.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/4/3269709.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:43:55 +0200 Foreign firms are strengthening their dominant position in China's mobile phone market, which despite its soarway growth, is now facing intense competition and tumbling average selling prices. China's mobile phone users exceeded 515m at the end of August, a monthly rise of 6.8m, while the number of fixed-line subscribers remained almost the same.. Main Page Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/1/3263576.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/1/3263576.html Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:39:41 +0200 London Asia Chinese Private Equity has seen trading in its shares temporarily suspended to allow auditors to valuate its investments. By itself, one should not read too much into the delay. Nevertheless, valuing small Chinese companies is more of a black art than a science... finance Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/28/3258145.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/28/3258145.html Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:56:31 +0200 [UPDATED] Huawei Technologies, China's fast-growing networking equipment vendor, will finally end up owning 3Com of the US after all. After their JV came to an end last November, EngagingChina predicted that 3Com "would probably have little choice but to go private or accept a trade sale." As it turns out, it has done both... Main Page Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/28/3257777.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/28/3257777.html Fri, 28 Sep 2007 11:01:53 +0200 China's travel market is booming but you wouldn't guess so from the recent performance of London-listed ET-China, whose shares have lost almost 40% in less than two months. With hindsight, ET-China didn't pick a good time to join Aim, London's junior market.. Main Page Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/28/3257720.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/28/3257720.html Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:44:04 +0200 Could Stork, the Dutch industrial group, be the next western firm to succumb to Chinese money? Avic-1, China's fast-growing state-owned aerospace company, is rumoured to be interested in buying Stork's aerospace division, better known by its historic name of Fokker... manufacturing Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/27/3256493.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/27/3256493.html Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:24:38 +0200 The internet in China is not as restricted as sometimes believed in the west, says a HK-based professor of new media studies quoted by Reuters. Well, EngagingChina begs to differ... Main Page Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/27/3255792.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/27/3255792.html Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:53:29 +0200 Chinese investors who have snapped up shares in China Shenhua Energy's IPO, the largest IPO ever in China, clearly think the company has stuck gold -- black gold. Meanwhile, China United Coalbed Methane has found a coalbed methane field with proven reserves of 5bn cubic metres... Main Page Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/27/3255728.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/27/3255728.html Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:53:30 +0200 Patience is a virtue. Australian bank ANZ has taken its second minority stake in a Chinese bank, although the deal took four years to close. ANZ will pay $263m for a 19.9% stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank (SRCB) - China's largest rural commercial bank... finance Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/27/3255709.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/27/3255709.html Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:30:10 +0200 China's soaring stock markets have propelled Citic to become the world's fourth largest broker behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Beijing-based Citic has a market capitalisation of more than $40bn and has put on $30bn just in the current year... finance Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/26/3254708.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/26/3254708.html Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:22:36 +0200 Thanks to the magic of code-share, European low-cost carrier Air Berlin,which started life ferrying German tourists to the Spanish holiday island of Mallorca, will next year be batting in the big league with direct flights to China... consumer Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/25/3252187.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/25/3252187.html Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:13:30 +0200 China will launch its maiden unmanned mission to the moon in November, the culmination of the Chinese space programme that, like the US-Soviet space race of the 1960s, seems driven more by national pride than by any scientific rationale... hi-tech Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/24/3250108.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/24/3250108.html Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:05:16 +0200 Industrial shelving systems may not be glamorous but they are big business for Spanish-listed company Mecalux which, somewhat belatedly, is preparing to make its entry into the Chinese market... hi-tech