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Tag: China

  • China cryptocurrency craze drives hard drive shortage in Vietnam

    China cryptocurrency craze drives hard drive shortage in Vietnam

    Large capacity hard drives are virtually out of stock in Vietnam because of a cryptocurrency mining craze in China.

    Customers and market observers say local people have been buying large-capacity hard drives in bulk and reselling them to the Chinese amidst a new mining craze for the Chia cryptocurrency in China.

    People who need to buy large space hard drives have commented on online groups for computer component buyers that they could not find any 6TB or larger-spaced hard drives, so they were having to buy smaller ones to merge into a large one.

    Hoang Lam, Subject Matter Expert of data storage company Seagate Vietnam said that Seagate’s 4TB hard drives have been out of stock since last month because “many of our customers bought the hard drives in bulk, from hundreds to thousands in one order, instead of a few units in one order as usual.”

    A computer component distributor in HCMC said that their hard drive sales surged by 50 percent last month despite prices rising 10-20 percent, and now the store is out of stock.

    Thanh Phong, a cryptocurrency miner and cryptocurrency mining gear seller, said the chokehold on large capacity hard drives supply in Vietnam was caused by the cryptocurrency mining boom for Chia in China.

    Chia is built around a cryptographic technique called Proof of Space and Time, which allows the cryptocurrency to be mined with unused storage space on hard drives rather unlike others like Bitcoin or Ethereum that use graphics cards. The more unused storage on the hard drive, the more Chia can be mined.

    Phong said that the Chia craze is yet to spread to Vietnam. Therefore, Vietnamese were buying hard drives in bulk to sell them to China.

    The Chinese miners have been stockpiling hard drives, preparing for Chia’s launch in May. As a result, hard drives with large capacities, from 4TB to 18 TB, have already been sold out on many Chinese e-commerce platforms.

    According to manmanbuy.com, a Chinese website that tracks and compares historical prices of products on China’s popular e-commerce platforms, the price of hard drives has surged 300 percent since the end of last year.

    Chia is the brainchild of Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer protocol that allows users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a decentralized manner. Cohen created Chia in 2017 with the aim of making a cryptocurrency that consumes less energy and generates less carbon when mining, compared to Bitcoin or Ethereum.

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  • Unilever plans $3.6 billion buyback as China and home cooks boost growt

    Unilever plans $3.6 billion buyback as China and home cooks boost growt

    Unilever announced a 3 billion euro ($3.6 billion) share buyback and said it was confident of hitting sales targets this year after demanding from home cooks and China helped it to beat first-quarter sales expectations.

    Shares in the maker of Dove soap and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream climbed as much as 4 percent on Thursday after it joined rivals such as Nestle and Procter & Gamble in reporting strong sales of food and cleaning products respectively in the pandemic.

    Underlying sales jumped 5.7 percent in the three months to the end of March, topping analysts average forecast of 3.9 percent, according to a company-supplied consensus.

    “These are encouraging numbers,” said Steve Clayton, portfolio manager of Hargreaves Lansdown’s Select UK Shares funds. “Unilever gains much of its strength through the group’s diversity.”

    The company said it was confident of delivering full-year underlying sales growth within its mid-term target range of 3-5per cent, with the first half around the top of the range.

    It also forecasts a slight increase in underlying operating margin this year, despite double-digit inflation on some raw materials, such as soybean oil and tea.

    Like several rivals, Unilever said it would need to raise prices to mitigate the impact.

    “Unilever price movement is typically in the 1-3 percent range historically, and that is where we expect to be this year,” Chief Executive Alan Jope told journalists after the company raised prices by 1 percent in the first quarter.

    Unilever, which makes about 60 percent of revenues in emerging markets, said underlying sales growth there reached 9.4 percent in the quarter, led by double-digit increases in China and India following strict lockdowns the previous year.

    Pitkethly said easier comparables than last year, a return of sales to cafes and restaurants in places like China, and the US retailer restocking of high-end beauty products underpinned its confidence for the rest of the year.

    Underlying sales in the group’s food and refreshments business, whose brands include Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Knorr soups, jumped 9.8 percent in the quarter, helped by strong demand for home consumption in North America and Europe.

    The company noted the devastating surge in Covid-19 infections sweeping India, another key market, but said it was not seeing any material impact on its business from that so far.

    “We’re looking forward to continued growth in Q2,” Jope said, pointing to the group’s success in digitized ordering, increasing manufacturing capacity, and bringing more inventory close to retail.

    Unilever also said it was making good progress in separating its slower-growth Elida beauty and tea businesses, which could lead to sales or spin-offs.

    Elida beauty will consist of brands predominantly sold in Europe and North America, including Q-Tips, Caress, Tigi, Timotei, Impulse and MonSavon, which together generated revenues of around 600 million euros in 2020, the company said.

    The moves are part of Jope’s plan to jump-start growth, which has lagged peers in recent years, partly because of an outsized focus on emerging markets that have performed unevenly.

    In February, Jope said Unilever would focus more on high-growth categories such as plant-based foods, beauty products and nutritional supplements, and aim to appeal more to younger consumers.

    He said the priority was to grow existing businesses, rather than make acquisitions, but added on Thursday that the share buyback should not be seen as a lack of appetite for deals.

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  • Puma’s China sales slowly up

    Puma’s China sales slowly up

    After a pandemic-served beatdown last year, Puma has clawed its way to recovery. On February 24, the German sportswear giant reported that sales jumped 9 percent to 1.52 billion euros in the last three months of 2020 — a promising upswing from the 55-percent plummet in its second quarter. Overall, sales were down 1.4 percent to 5.23 billion euros for the financial year.

    This rebound was led by strong performance in the Asia Pacific, which surged 11.8 percent in the fourth quarter to 480.5 million euros, driven by mainland China. But the country alone was not enough to stop the region’s full-year sales from falling 3.2 percent compared to 2019 levels, down to 1.48 billion euros.

    Given the importance of these global markets, Puma doubled down on establishing local relevance, particularly through sports, influencers, and communication platforms. This was not only reflected in the brand’s return to basketball and collaboration with grammy-winning artist J. Cole, but also its increasing partnerships with popular Chinese talents, including actors Yang Yang, Li Xian, and Liu Haoran as well as supermodel Liu Wen.

    The brand further grew its China footprint by leveraging the country’s biggest shopping holiday, Singles’ Day, logging 2.8 million orders and 80 million euros in revenue over the week. And already, Puma is making good on its goal to design more products specific to the market, partnering with Hong Kong-based artist Michael Lau, “The Godfather of Toy Figures,” to ring in the new year.

    That said, all Puma products did well in the fourth quarter, with apparel growing 15.7 percent, accessories up 7.3 percent, and footwear increasing 3.8 percent.

    “We clearly see a running boom in the whole world,” CEO Bjorn Gulden told journalists, adding that orders for 2021 are up almost 30 percent compared to last year, especially for running products.

    This tracks with Puma’s Q3 results, which showed strong demand for performance-related products, especially for individual sports like running or hiking. With the healthy living trend expected to persist after the pandemic, the sporting goods sector is positioned to weather the crisis better than most.

    But Puma isn’t out of the storm just yet. With almost half of its retail stores in Europe still closed and other markets operating under significant restrictions, the apparel maker is bracing for impact in the first half of 2021. However, the brand is also confident that its quick Q4 recovery and strong order book — along with global efforts to combat the virus — will lead to a moderate sales bump later this year.

    “I am convinced that 2021 will be a better year for us than 2020,” Gulden said. Knock on wood.

  • China Widens Regulatory Net for Fintech Crackdown

    China Widens Regulatory Net for Fintech Crackdown

    More than a dozen major technology firms in China are set to face similar restrictions imposed on Jack Ma’s Ant Group as Beijing widens its fintech crackdown.

    13 tech titans – including Tencent, ByteDance, JD.com, Meituan and Didi Chuxing – were summoned to a meeting over a series of new requirements for their financial units, according to a joint statement by Chinese regulators.

    State representatives at the meeting included the central bank, the banking and insurance regulator, the securities regulator and the foreign exchange watchdog. The 13 tech firms will face similar requirements previously imposed on Jack Ma’s Ant Group including the restructuring of financial units into holding companies for regulatory supervision.

    Restrictions will be tightened in numerous areas such as payment links to financial products, collection of customer data, credit scoring services and overseas listings.

    The latest regulatory push against the broader fintech sector follows the headline crackdown against Ant Group with the latest move being a probe against its IPO backers and considerations for the divestment of Ma’s stake.

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  • Yum China sales, profit soar on fewer store closures

    Yum China sales, profit soar on fewer store closures

    Without the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to hold it back at this year’s beginning, Yum China Holdings reported improved results for the first quarter of 2021. The Shanghai-based fast-casual company — a spinoff from Yum! Brands that hold franchises for Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC, along with a number of regional brands — beat analyst expectations at both the top and bottom lines.

    According to reports aggregating the consensus estimates of multiple Wall Street analysts, Yum China registered a 6.2% positive surprise, $150 million above the predicted $2.41 billion in sales. The actual revenue of $2.56 billion surged 46.3% year over year, without the pandemic causing dining shut down as was the case in early 2020. Adjusted earnings per share, or EPS, came in at $0.54, surpassing the forecast of $0.44 EPS for a 22.7% positive surprise.

    With growth “driven by lower commodity prices and productivity gains” along with far fewer restaurant closures and generally improved conditions, Yum China said in its press release that same-store sales rose 10% overall year over year. Pizza Hut saw the biggest same-store sales increase (38%), while a 5% rise occurred at KFC.

    CEO Joey Wat says Yum China is taking measures designed to “accelerate our growth in the years ahead,” which include strengthening its supply chain, integrating more automation and digital into its processes, and acquiring a 5% stake in its most important chicken supplier. Digital orders at Pizza Hut and KFC accounted for 84% of sales during Q1, while delivery orders added up to 29% of the total. The switch to digital and the growing use of ordering kiosks mirrors Yum! Brands’ recent opening of its first American digital-only Taco Bell in Times Square.

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  • Volkswagen Begins Construction Of New Electric Plant In China

    Volkswagen Begins Construction Of New Electric Plant In China

    Volkswagen Group China has begun construction of an all-new MEB plant at Volkswagen Anhui recently. As the third of the Group’s pure-electric vehicle manufacturing facilities in China, following completion of the Anting (SAIC VW) and Foshan (FAW-VW) plants, the Volkswagen Anhui plant will be powered by green energy from day one. Due for completion mid-2022, the plant is set for the start of production in the second half of 2023.

    By 2025, Volkswagen Group China plans to deliver up to 1.5 million new energy vehicles (NEVs) per year. Dr. Stephan Wollenstein, CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said, “As China is the world’s largest single market for NEV vehicles, we need to strengthen our local competence, and Volkswagen Anhui is a significant part of it. With the plant to be powered by green energy from day one, we are demonstrating our commitment to reducing carbon emissions beyond our fleet.”

    The new body shop will cover roughly 141,000 square meters and makes up part of the total project area, together covering around 500,000m2. The new plant will incorporate a number of energy-saving strategies as part of comprehensive efforts to reduce overall carbon emissions, including the adoption of low energy consumption production equipment. A supplier park for batteries and components is also planned for construction in the area.

    Volkswagen Anhui will have a staff of around 500 on board by 2025, with a focus on R&D and engineering innovations. Combining R&D, quality assurance, pre-sales manufacturing, and testing under one roof, Volkswagen Anhui will provide the Group with a faster time-to-market for new e-mobility products.

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  • Beijing Probes State Backers of Ant IPO

    Beijing Probes State Backers of Ant IPO

    Beijing is reportedly investigating how Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma quickly won approvals for the later pulled listing of Ant Group, in yet another sign that scrutiny of the fintech giant and its founder remains incomplete.

    China’s central government first kicked off the investigation early this year.

    The investigation is aimed at regulators that approved the IPO, local officials that advocated it and large state firms that stood to gain from the listing.

    Jack Ma’s relationships with these state entities will also be probed, the report added.

    Ant Group’s troubles with Beijing persists despite a series of hits to the fintech giant which included its $37 billion IPO pullout, a major overhaul of its businesses and, more recently, considerations for the potential divestment of Ma’s ownership.

    Ant Group’s business prospects have been significantly moderated and its expected valuation has plummeted from the initial $320 billion to as low as $29 billion, according to a recent forecast by Bloomberg.

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  • Tesla Cars In China Are Being Stopped On The Highway

    Tesla Cars In China Are Being Stopped On The Highway

    In China, many Tesla owners have reported that they are being stopped on the highway by the police over safety concerns. This is particularly true in the Guangzhou district of China. This comes in the wake of numerous safety concerns around Tesla cars especially after the recent fatal accident of the Tesla Model S in the US state of Texas. This is also happening in the wake of a protest by a Tesla owner at the Tesla showcase during the Shanghai Motor Show which was concluded last week.

    “The traffic accident occurred in the north of Dongjiang Avenue, Zengcheng District, Guangzhou on April 13, according to a statement released by Zengcheng public security bureau on Wednesday. A car caught fire after colliding with the cement barrier on the right side of the road and another car, leading to one passenger dead, said the statement,” said reports on Chinese news portals like the Global Times.

    “This afternoon, we have proactively contacted the Zhengzhou Municipal Market Supervision Administration and reported the relevant situation. In order to protect the rights and interests of consumers, we are willing to cooperate fully and provide the raw data of the vehicle half an hour before the incident to the third-party appraisal agency or the technology designated by the government. The regulatory authority or the consumer himself,” said one Weibo user.

    There were many such instances of posts by Tesla users on Chinese social networks. However, the police have come out and said that it was just doing a general exercise around traffic. It has denied isolating just Tesla owners, however, the owners are staying that they felt targeted exclusively.

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  • China launches antitrust probe into food delivery giant Meituan

    China launches antitrust probe into food delivery giant Meituan

    China launched an antitrust investigation into food delivery giant Meituan, the market regulator said on Monday, the latest target in a crackdown on the country’s sprawling internet platform economy.

    The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said in a statement that its investigation was focused on the practice whereby a company forces vendors to use their platform exclusively, known as “choose one from two”.

    Tencent-backed Meituan, which this month raised $10 billion in a stock and convertible bonds sale, said in a statement it would cooperate with the investigation and that its business was operating normally.

    This month, SAMR imposed a record $2.75 billion fine on e-commerce giant Alibaba over the same practice and summoned 34 internet firms including Meituan to tell them to learn from Alibaba’s penalty and not use banned practices.

    Meituan, which competes with Alibaba-backed Ele.me among others, had an estimated 68.2% of China’s food delivery market in the second quarter of 2020, according to Trustdata. Meituan’s businesses also include bike-sharing, community group buying, and restaurant reviews.

    China has in recent months taken measures to rein in its once loosely-regulated internet economy in a clampdown backed by President Xi Jinping that has rattled the industry.

    Zheng Wei, a partner with Beijing-based law firm Anli Partners, said regulators aimed to reduce the impact of dominant internet players on consumers, employees, and smaller firms.

    He said that “regulators aim to prevent internet platforms from using their dominant position to exert influence over governance, including legislative and judicial process.”

    SAMR was adding staff and other resources as China revamps its competition law with proposed amendments including a sharp increase in fines and expanded criteria for judging a company’s control of a market.

    In March, Meituan was among five backers or owners of community group-buying platforms fined by SAMR over “improper pricing behavior” related to subsidies.

  • China is home to world’s largest 5G network

    China is home to world’s largest 5G network

    With 260 million 5G mobile connections, China boasts the world’s largest 5G mobile network, according to Liu Liehong, vice minister of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in a press conference this week.

    As of the end of February, China reported having 792,000 5G base stations, with 5G SA networks covering all prefecture-level cities, while 5G terminal connections reached 260 million.

    This year, China is planning to build more than 600,000 5G base stations to broaden the country’s 5G coverage and strengthen its digital competitiveness. 5G is viewed to be critical to the advancement of tech innovations and accelerating industry digitalization to boost the nation’s industrial capacity.

    In the country’s fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) held in early March, China emphasized on building up tech reliance through national policies and R&D spending.

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  • China is Becoming a Global Center of the Pharmaceutical Industry

    China is Becoming a Global Center of the Pharmaceutical Industry

    China’s pharmaceutical industry is in the midst of a transformation. China is one of the largest markets in the world for medicine – and it is poised to become a global hub of drug innovation/a global leader in drug development technology.

    An increasing number of international investors have turned their attention to the healthcare sector as the corona crisis rages on. Weak spots in healthcare systems across the world have been exposed by the pandemic, and it has also triggered a fundamental reset in investor mindsets. One of the winners of these recent events will probably be the healthcare industry in emerging markets – which are also becoming increasingly important as a market for medicines.

    At the center of these developments is Asia, where healthcare systems are facing the same challenges as healthcare systems in the West. Changes in lifestyles and diets associated with rising wealth are having a negative impact on people’s health. For example, the rapidly growing number of overweight people worldwide is leading to a rapid increase in the number of diagnosed diabetes cases.

    A quarter of the estimated 400 million people worldwide who have diabetes live in China and almost a fifth live in ASEAN countries such as Malaysia or Thailand. At the same time, aging populations are leading to an increase in the number of patients diagnosed with cancer, neurological or circulatory diseases. This translates into steadily rising costs for national healthcare systems as more and more citizens require access to efficient and affordable healthcare.

    Asia is forging ahead. This was once again evident as the coronavirus crisis unfolded and Asian companies led the way with their solutions. Meanwhile, a raft of positive data has been published in other areas and improved the corresponding pipeline visibility. Last but not least, the process of digitization has gained momentum, while disruptive technologies are steadily improving access to healthcare.

    China has one of the largest medicine markets in the world. Its overall spending on healthcare is still low compared to many of the industrialized countries. The country is making steady progress in expanding its domestic drug research and development capabilities and its domestic drug production, which helps the government to provide an increasing number of Chinese with access to affordable healthcare.

    The Chinese government is offering tax and other financial incentives as part of a long-term plan to develop an internationally competitive homegrown biopharmaceutical industry. Beijing’s national health policy currently prioritizes efficiency and the establishment of innovation centers, which it is promoting through financial incentives. The main pillars of the government’s approach here are three vast centers of innovation – the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park near Shanghai, the BioBay in Suzhou and the Shenzhen innovation hub, which is often referred to as China’s Silicon Valley for pharma companies because it is already home to global companies such as Huawei.

    Sales of innovative drugs in China are forecast to triple from 117 billion yuan this year to 375 billion yuan in 2025. Local biotech companies selected as “partners of choice” for global companies seeking to enter the Chinese market and advance the development, approval and commercialization of their drugs in China will play a critical role in achieving this growth. Innovative homegrown Chinese drugs are also creating excitement worldwide and these drugs are being in-licensed by Big Pharma in the West.

    The current situation is comparable with the situation in the U.S. at the end of the 1980s when the biotech boom began, driven by scientific breakthroughs. We believe China’s medicine market is poised to become a major growth market and is currently transitioning from a «Me-Too» drug market to a «First-in-Class» or Best-in-Class market.

    Valuations in the Asian healthcare sector are currently very inexpensive and stock prices have shown a positive trend since the global coronavirus-induced crash last year. The BB Adamant Asia Pacific Healthcare Fund has outperformed the broader indexes throughout the various market cycles.

    For example, it has delivered an excess performance of more than 50 percent relative to the MSCI Asia Pacific Index since its launch at the end of April 2017. The secular upward trend in Asian healthcare markets should continue going forward, thanks in particular to the growing innovation power of the region, where companies that stand to benefit from structural trends are already winning international acclaim.

  • Tesla Apologises After Customer Protested At Autoshow, To Share Car Data With Chinese Regulator

    Tesla Apologises After Customer Protested At Autoshow, To Share Car Data With Chinese Regulator

    Tesla Inc apologised to Chinese consumers for not addressing a customer’s complaints in a timely way, and said it would launch a review of its service operations in the world’s biggest auto market. The unusual public apology from Tesla followed criticism in state media, and an incident at the Shanghai auto show that got wide attention in China’s social media. An unhappy customer by clambered atop a Tesla at the auto show to protest the company’s handling of her complaints about malfunctioning brakes. Videos that went viral on Monday showed a woman wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “The brakes don’t work” and shouting similar accusations while staff and security struggled to restore calm.

    The trouble for Tesla in China overlapped with new questions in the United States about the safety of the company’s Autopilot partially-automated driving systems. Police in Texas are investigating a fatal crash involving a Tesla Model S that hit a tree and burst into flames. Rescuers found victims in the passenger and rear seat, not the driver’s seat. Federal regulators are investigating the crash, and have a total of 24 probes underway of accidents involving Teslas operating on Autopilot.

    Tesla sells roughly 30% of its cars in China, made at its Shanghai factory. But it has faced occasional criticism over issues such as complaints of battery fires. Monday’s incident led state broadcaster CCTV to call for an investigation of reported brake problems on Tesla cars, while China’s anti-graft watchdog weighed in with a commentary saying such disputes should be resolved within the rule of law. “Individuals should not take extreme measures, and enterprises should not be arrogant and unreasonable,” the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said late on Tuesday.

    On Wednesday, a representative at Tesla’s store in Zhengzhou, where the protesting customer came from, told local state media the automaker will share data related to the brake incident with local market regulators for investigation.

    Tesla said on Monday that the woman was a vehicle owner who had been involved in a collision earlier this year. It cited “speeding violations” for the crash, adding in a social media statement that it had been negotiating with her about returning the car, but the talks had stalled over a third-party inspection.

    Last month, Tesla came under scrutiny in China when the military banned its cars from entering its complexes, citing security concerns over cameras in its vehicles, sources said.

    That prompted founder Elon Musk to say that if Tesla used cameras to spy in China or anywhere, it would be shut down. Earlier this month, Tesla said cameras in its cars are not activated outside of North America.

    The woman whose protest started it all will be detained for five days, Shanghai police said on Tuesday.

    Police said the woman and a female accomplice – identified only by their surnames, Zhang and Li – “caused chaos” at the trade fair on Monday when they arrived at the Tesla display “to express their dissatisfaction due to a consumer dispute.”

    Zhang was ordered detained for “disrupting public order,” while Li received a warning, police said. Zhang and Li could not be contacted for comment.

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  • Car imports from China increase sixfold

    Car imports from China increase sixfold

    Vietnam imported 3,945 completely built-up (CBU) cars from China in Q1, six times over the same period last year, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

    Despite the surging number of cars imported from China, the country was the third-largest car supplier of Vietnam, after Thailand and Indonesia.

    Up to 80 percent of the completely built-up (CBU) cars imported to Vietnam in Q1 were from Thailand and Indonesia. The number of imported cars from Thailand was 19,300 units, up 56 percent year-on-year, while those from Indonesia stood at 8,950 units, down 26 percent year-on-year.

    Thailand and Indonesia have always led the list of Vietnam’s car suppliers ever since the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) took effect in 2018, owing to the zero import tariff. Meanwhile, imported Chinese cars are dealt an import tariff of 47-70 percent.

    Vietnam imported around 35,300 CBU cars in Q1, a year-on-year increase of 31.1 percent.

    Auto sales rose by 36 percent year-on-year between January and March to 70,952 units, according to Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

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  • DBS Deepens Roots in China

    DBS Deepens Roots in China

    The bank will accelerate its expansion in the rapidly growing Greater Bay Area with a stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank.

    DBS has entered into an agreement to acquire a 13 percent stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank in a deal valued at RMB 5.286 billion ($813.2 million), as part of its strategy of investing in its core markets, the bank announced on Tuesday evening.

    The deal for 1.35 billion new shares at RMB 3.91 ($0.60) per share, representing 1.01 times the book value per share as of 31 December 2020, will make DBS the largest shareholder of SZRCB. DBS will use internal cash resources to fund the investment, which is expected to complete when the deal is approved by regulatory authorities in China.

    Established in 2005, SZRCB currently operates one of the largest bank branch network in Shenzhen, with 210 branches and over 3,600 employees servicing over 5 million active retail customers and over 170,000 active corporate customers.

    Approximately 40 percent of its loans are in the retail segment and the remaining 60 percent are in corporate segment, largely to Shenzhen-based small-and-medium-enterprises. The bank has RMB 519 billion in assets and RMB 404 billion in deposits, and generated RMB 4.8 billion in net profit as of 31 December 2020.

    We see this as a highly complementary strategic partnership that will allow us to double down on the GBA and leverage on SZRCB’s local network and know-how to deepen DBS’ GBA strategy. At the same time, we would be able to support the continued growth and digital transformation of SZRCB through our regional presence and digital capabilities, Piyush Gupta, DBS CEO, said in the announcement.

  • Citi Eyes More China Licenses

    Citi Eyes More China Licenses

    After its consumer banking exit in China, Citi will accelerate the growth of its mainland institutional business with the reported pursuit of new licenses.

    Citi plans to submit an application for a securities and futures brokerage license, according to a report citing unnamed sources, with a focus on underwriting yuan-denominated shares and client trading.

    The American bank plans to submit the application within the next two months with the aim of launching for business in 12 to 18 months.

    A chief executive for the business will soon be named and 50 staff will be initially hired before doubling in the longer term, the report added. Most hires will be external but staff from other mainland businesses will also be transferred.

    Citi is a relative latecomer in terms of expansion in China compared to its rivals which have announced ambitious goals to double or even triple headcount in the historic opening of the mainland’s $54 trillion financial market.

    The bank also recently announced its planned retail banking exit in China as part of a broader pullback across markets in Asia and EMEA.

    Currently, Citi has a bond underwriting and settlement license as well as a domestic custody license received last year.