FOREX

Conversion of the Chinese currency unit CNY (Yuan or RMB) against the USD:

CNY 1.00 is worth: USD 0.146419
USD 1.00 is worth: CNY 6.829699

 

ECONOMIC OVERVIEW

= FOREIGN BUYERS EYE ABC’S IPO =

Hong Kong, SAR, June 15, 2010; == Two of Hong Kong's richest tycoons will each buy almost USD 130 million worth of Agricultural Bank of China's initial public offering, which could be the world's biggest. LI Ka-Shing, head of conglomerate Cheung Kong Holdings, and LEE Shau-Kee, chief of property giant Henderson Land, have signed on as cornerstone investors, each scooping up a billion Hong Kong dollars (USD 128 million) worth of shares. Last February, Forbes business magazine ranked Li as the financial hub's richest man with a net worth of USD 21.3 billion, followed by Lee with a USD 19 billion fortune. Singapore’s government investment company Temasek Holdings plans to buy as much as USD 300 million of shares, while Middle Eastern sovereign funds Qatar Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority are eyeing at least a billion dollar investment. There has been speculation that the size of the bank's share sale would be smaller than earlier anticipated due to weak market sentiment and concerns over the profitability of its operations, which focus on rural lending. The bank was initially expected to raise as much as USD 30 billion. The world's biggest IPO so far is the USD 22-billion offering of ICBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2006.

= VISA IN CLASH WITH CHINA UNIONPAY =

Beijing,June 06, 2010; == Visa has told banks they must stop using the payment system of Chinese state-backed China UnionPay to process international transactions for co-branded Visa and UnionPay credit cards. If banks did not comply with Visa’s request, the card company said it would start to charge penalties from the first of August, according to the official China Securities Journal. Foreign credit card companies are becoming increasingly frustrated in China, where transactions must be conducted through the monopoly UnionPay, which is aggressively expanding beyond China’s borders. China does not allow foreign groups to issue their own credit cards, build networks to support such cards or process interbank point-of-sale transactions. Instead, they are required to “co-brand” with Chinese partners to provide any of these services.

= CHINA FORCES PFIZER TO DIVEST =

Shanghai, June 04, 2010; == Pfizer Inc. sold its swine vaccine business in China to Harbin Bio-Vaccine, an animal health unit of Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, for USD 50 million. The business caters in manufacturing RespiSure and RespiSure-One swine mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (MH) vaccines. The divestment is generally understood to be connected to Pfizer's recent USD 68 billion merger with Wyeth after China's Ministry of Commerce ordered Pfizer to sell its local business citing “anti-monopoly regulations”.

= APPOINTMENT ADAB AVIATION DIRECTOR =

Ningbo (Zhejiang), January 04, 2010; = Captain John M. BENT, former Head of Pilot Flight Training at Cathay-Pacific Airways’ Dragonair Airlines (Swire Group) in Hong Kong, has been appointed ADAB’s Non-Executive Director and Chief Counselor for all General Aviation, Civil Aviation and Military Aviation matters. Capt. Bent, rated on 28 aircraft types, is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and an industrial-wide well-known aviation keynote speaker and flight training expert.

= FIRST CHINESE TAKE-OVER OF EUROPEAN AVIATION INDUSTRY =

Ried-Innkreis (Austria)/Xi’an, December 03, 2009 = Chinese plane maker Xi'an Aircraft Industry today purchased a 91.25% majority stake in Austrian aircraft parts maker FACC, Fischer Advanced Composite Components A.G. The Austrian company, development-partner in Boeing’s 787 project, produces reinforced light weight structural interiors for civil airliners. It is the first European aviation manufacturer acquired by a Chinese aerospace industry. The Chinese group will inject at least EUR 40 million (USD 58 million) in fresh capital into FACC.

= CHINA’S AVIATION PROFITS SOAR =

Beijing, Oct. 24, 2009; = China's aviation industry made a profit of CNY 9.21bn in the first three quarters of this year, helped by a recovery in demand and a fall in jet fuel prices. This figure is a rise of CNY 9.68bn,year-on-year. In an annualised rise of 20%, domestic carriers flew 170m passengers in the first three quarters, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). In September, domestic carriers flew 19.3m passengers, a rise of 17.3% year-on-year, and 456,548 tonnes of cargo, a jump of 24.7%, according to the CAAC.

= HAINAN AIR GROUP PARTNERS WITH MALAYSIA AIRWAYS =

Haikou, Oct. 23, 2009; = HNA Group, parent of Hainan Airlines, and Malaysia Airlines have agreed to partner in a cargo business to develop a network in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. The two partners will cooperate via charters and code share flights to increase efficiency and reduce costs to battle rising fuel prices and they are also likely to jointly build a cargo station in Shanghai Pudong Airport. HNA is also eying opportunities in the Shanghai market to integrate logistics and financial services. The group plans to form a ship leasing company in Shanghai by the end of this year and launch a CNY 5bn industry investment fund next year.

= GREAT WALL SUES FIAT FOR SPYING =

Shijiazhuang, Oct. 21, 2009; = Great Wall Motors Co is suing Italian car maker Fiat for allegedly stealing its business secrets. The case appears to be the second round in a battle that began when Fiat accused Great Wall of copying one of its cars in 2007. In the latest case, Great Wall Motors, a Chinese sports utility vehicle maker, accuses Fiat of sending spies to its engineering centre and taking pictures of its first subcompact car, the “Peri”, while it was under development before its release in 2007. The Chinese car maker filed the lawsuit with the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court, and the court is preparing to send the complaint to Fiat's headquarters in Torino, Italy.

= MASSIVE INVESTMENT FOR CHINA’S AVIATION INDUSTRY =

Xi’an, July 02, 2009; = China has setup an CNY 30 billion fund in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, to invest in the aviation industry. Xi'an Yan Liang National Aviation High-Tech Industrial Base, the country’s first state-level aviation fund, has a registered capital of CNY 300 million. More than 60% of the fund will be used to invest in enterprises and ventures in five aviation bases nation-wide, Xi’an, Shenyang, Harbin, Anshun, and Chengdu.

= CNY FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADING =

Beijing, July 01, 2009; = The PBOC, China's central bank, released a rule permitting companies in five selected cities to settle cross-border trades using the CNY (the Chinese Yuan currency). The government will allow Shanghai and 4 cities in the southern Guangdong province - Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Dongguan - to settle, on a pilot basis, international trade in CNY as part of its efforts to reduce reliance on the US dollar for international trade.

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