Tag Archives: South China Morning Post

News, Politics, Government

And You Thought U.S. Airports Were Bad

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By Kenneth Rapoza, Contributor

This Tuesday in the Delta Airlines Sky Lounge at JFK International in New York there was a guy from London who was two days off his Louisville bound travel schedule because Delta had canceled flights.  A young woman in her twenties, standing in line with me to find out why my flight was now three hours late to Boston, said I shouldn’t feel bad: her flight was supposed to leave a day ago to Raleigh. Chalk it up to bad weather or — as George Carlin once said, “broken planes” — still, our airports are some of the best in the world for getting their passengers out on time. According to travel industry monitor, FlightStats, Chinese airports are the worst. The FlightStats figures showed that in June 2013, out of a worldwide analysis, Beijing and Shanghai airports came in last for on-time arrivals and departures. They had by far the worst record for on-time flights – 18.3% and 28.7% respectively leaving those busy airports on schedule. FlightStats came out with their report two weeks ago, but being stuck in JFK for three hours, and listening to people stuck because of delayed Delta flights , had me thinking twice about the reliability of U.S. airports.  Truth is, they are not as bad as Americans tend to believe. And despite all the billions of dollars spent on new and modern airports in China, the air traffic controllers cannot get their planes in the air on time. Chinese airline performance makes Delta look like the best airline in the world. China United Airlines had just 27% of its flights arriving on time. Large national carriers like Air China and China Southern also reported massive delays along those same lines. Mainland experts attribute the problem to excessive military control of the airspace and poor urban planning, the South China Morning Post reported on July 12. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Global Banks Are "Divorcing" China

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By Gordon G. Chang, Contributor HSBC Group is expected in the next few months to sell its 8.0% stake in the Bank of Shanghai.  The financial services giant could receive as much as $800 million from its shares in the second-tier Chinese lender.  Why do analysts think HSBC will unload its holding soon?  It looks like the Bank of Shanghai is set to raise $2 billion by selling newly issued stock, on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges, with a value of up to 30% of its existing shares.  The listing could occur before June, so HSBC will have to act now if it does not want to be trapped by a lock-up period, typically imposed on existing shareholders for periods of up to a year. Two years ago, nobody thought HSBC would ever dispose of major Chinese assets.  Now, there is talk it might get rid of all of them.  Analysts sense a change in sentiment because HSBC is already dumping Chinese assets.  This year it completed the sale of its 15.6% interest in Ping An to Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group for $9.4 billion.  Previously, the shares in China’s second-largest life insurance company had been described as “strategic.”  Then, there are rumors that the institution, once known as the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, will also sell its half interest in HSBC Life Insurance, which laid off 130 sales staff recently. The investment community is even talking about a once-unthinkable event, the disposal of HSBC’s 18.7% holding in .  John Bond, when he headed HSBC, wanted to increase the stake in Bocom, as China’s fifth-largest lender is known, and eventually control it.  Today, however, HSBC looks like it will never achieve management control. The dominant view is that HSBC will be content to continue holding its Bocom stake because, as one unnamed Shanghai analyst told the South China Morning Post, a sale would mean “HSBC’s China story will be over.”   That analyst may think it is inconceivable that any major bank would ever exit China, but the country is no longer that important to the world’s financial community. In fact, it looks as if HSBC will have to work hard to find another bank to take its Bank of Shanghai shares.  The fact that it could not find a financial institution to buy its Ping An stake is a sign that, in general, foreign bankers are “divorcing” China, as South China Morning Post columnist Doug Young recently put it. The reason for the unhappiness is clear.  HSBC, for instance, sold Ping An because it was unable to get “strategic returns” from the insurance company. HSBC is not the only institution to feel this way.  Analysts think sold the bulk of its remaining holding in 2011 and Goldman Sachs unloaded another tranche of shares in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China this January because, like HSBC, they were frustrated that their large stakes weren’t helping them further their China businesses.  Chinese banks simply do not believe that they need enduring relations with foreign counterparts,

From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2013/04/21/global-banks-are-divorcing-china/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why Did My Stock Just Die?

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By Rich Duprey, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

It was only a 42-point gain yesterday, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to yet another new record high, hitting 14,296 and making this the eighth longest bull market since 1928. With Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke greasing the skids with his QE-infinity, Warren Buffett agreed in a CNBC interview that “cheap money makes things happen.” Of course, what happens when the spigot gets turned off, as it eventually must, is left unsaid.

The three stocks below, however, were in no mood to celebrate, with several incurring double-digit losses on the day. But don’t go running over the cliff with them like a bunch of lemmings: This could just be a temporary situation. Let’s first see whether they had good reason to fall as panic-fueled routs can sometimes lead to excellent buying opportunities.

Company

% Change

Acura Pharmaceuticals

(12.2%)

Sohu.com

(11.1%)

AeroVironment

(9.8%)

Accurately depicted
Two steps forward, one step back. That describes what you’re seeing at Acura Pharmaceuticals after the stock pulled back following its 48% gain the day before after announcing the Kerr Drug chain would carry its Nexafed decongestant throughout its stores in North Carolina.

As part of the FDA‘s push to make it difficult to abuse certain drugs, Nexafed is designed so it is difficult to make into methamphetamine. Its composition is such that should a drug abuser try to extract the active ingredient, pseudoephedrine, the whole thing would turn into an unusable thick gel.

Acura began selling Nexafed in December and has been anticipating independent drug stores rather than chains picking up the decongestant, and when it reported its fourth quarter results on Monday, it said it had entered distribution agreements at the end of February with most national and regional drug wholesalers.

Although the stock is down another 9% in early morning trading, it remains up 10% so far this year.

Privately speaking
Sohu.com also gave back the gains it made the day before after the Chinese Internet portal denied rumors it was actively seeking a go-private deal. On Tuesday, Sohu’s stock jumped 12% after the South China Morning Post reported that the company was in talks with investment banks and private equity funds about a possible buyout, but yesterday the CFO shot them down saying the reports were inaccurate as not only were they not involved in any such discussions, but the idea wasn’t even being considered.

Sohu’s stock ended the day at $43.44, some $0.20 lower than where they had been before the rumor was published, making it down 16% for the past year.

It wouldn’t have been a surprise, though, had Sohu actually confirmed the rumor. After numerous reports of fraud and financial shenanigans occurred at small, Chinese companies over the past few years, investors lost their appetite for them, and many company insiders began mulling whether to take their companies private. The Chinese government jumped into the fray by actively …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

SOHU Denies It's Going Private. Shares Plunge

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By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

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Responding to rumors it said were apparently sparked by an article in the South China Morning Post, to the effect that it is in contact with investment bankers and private equity buyers over a planned “going private” transaction, Chinese online media company Sohu.com today said the whole thing is just nonsense.

In a press release issued in the wee hours of the morning (our time) Wednesday, Sohu bluntly said it “is not talking to investment banks and private equity funds about a possible plan to take the company private and/or delist its common stock from the NASDAQ Global Select Market. No such discussions are in progress or currently contemplated.”

Sohu shareholders, however, have seen the value of their shares plunge 8.6% at the time of this writing (to $44.65 in recent trading), as hopes for a big going-private premium evaporate. Shares of other Chinese Internet companies, which may have been buoyed by hopes they would follow Sohu down a path it now denies treading, are suffering similarly. Qihoo 360 Technology down 7.5%. Changeyou.com down 7.1%. SINA Corp. down 4%. NetEase down 1.4%. 

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The article SOHU Denies It’s Going Private. Shares Plunge originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends NetEase.com, SINA , and Sohu.com. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Automobiles

Report: Hyundai plant one of 100 factories shutting down in wake of Beijing pollution scare

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By Zach Bowman

Filed under: , , , ,

Smog in Beijing

Many factories and chemical plants have suspended production in Beijing in an attempt to curb dangerous pollution, according to the South China Morning Post. The air pollution is some of the worst the city has seen in years, with harmful PM2.5 particle rates hovering between 200 and 400 micrograms per cubic meter. That number is down from as high as 886 on Sunday. For contrast, the US Environmental Protection Agency regulations say PM2.5 concentration at any location be no higher than 65 micrograms per cubic meter, with average maximums not to exceed 15 micrograms per cubic meter.

China blames the pollution on vehicle emissions, industrial production and an increase in domestic coal use to heat homes during cold weather. A total of 48 work sites, including construction zones, metal refineries and chemical plants have suspended production, and 41 factories have cut back production as well. That includes Hyundai Motor Beijing, which suspended production on Sunday.

Even so, the area’s children’s hospitals are receiving up to 10,000 patients per day with respiratory ailments. The city’s government says it is in the midst of an eight-year plan to curb pollution and that levels have dropped between 30 and 70 percent over the past 14 years thanks to its actions.

Hyundai plant one of 100 factories shutting down in wake of Beijing pollution scare originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

News, Politics, Government

Hong Kong Billionaire Too Sick For Corruption Trial, But Prosecutors Say Otherwise

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By Robert Olsen, Forbes Staff Chinese Estates' Joseph Lau The trial of Chinese Estates Chairman and CEO Joseph Lau was delayed for the second time on Monday after his lawyer said the billionaire was too unwell to stand trial. South China Morning Post reported that Lau’s lawyer produced medical documents to support the claim, but Macau‘s prosecutors opposed […]
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest