Internet

Baidu's Qunar set for date with US bourse

Baidu Inc's travel-booking service Qunar.com Inc is planning a US initial public offering that may raise about $150 million (113 million euros), according to two people familiar with the matter. Qunar, which runs China's most popular mobile travel app, is working with Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc on the sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private. An IPO is expected to take place as early as the fourth quarter, they said. Baidu, operator of China's largest search engine, paid $306 million in 2011 for a majority stake in Qunar to tap the country's growing travel market. The travel site's search coverage includes about 1,250 travel agencies, 125,000 flight routes and more than 468,000 hotels, according to its website.

Pharma

GSK still sees room for growth in China

British pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline Plc has reiterated that it remains committed to China for the long term and rubbished recent media reports that it was considering pulling out of the country over potential fines following a bribery scandal.

Earlier, The Telegraph had in a report said that the British company is considering whether to pull out of China, where an ongoing criminal investigation may leave the company facing a fine as high as 20 billion yuan ($3.27 billion) and the severance of ties with major hospitals. "GSK has a long history in China - we have been present in the country since the early 1900s. We remain committed to China for the long term," GSK China said on Monday. The Telegraph also quoted other sources suggesting that GSK was using the threat of withdrawal to bring down the fine.

Telecoms

ZTE to make a splash with 4G smartphones

ZTE Corp, the world's fifth-largest smartphone maker, said it has become the first company to receive regulatory approval in China to sell handsets for the fourth-generation network service. The company's Grand Memo handset was approved by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to run on the 4G TD-LTE network standard, the Shenzhen-based ZTE said on Sept 9. The statement didn't say when the device, which runs on Nvidia Corp's Tegra3 processor, would go on sale.

Economy

Debt holdings set to increase substantially

Government debt may exceed 15 trillion yuan ($2.45 trillion) in China, said a government researcher, amid an ongoing audit of the total borrowing.

Zhao Quanhou, head of financial research at the Fiscal Science Research Center affiliated with the Ministry of Finance, suggested that the figure might even cross 18 trillion yuan.

Although debt has expanded at a controllable pace, experts said aggressive borrowing by local governments needs to be curtailed as many of these entities are looking to shore up capital now.

Aviation

Helicopter deal to boost Sino-US trade ties

Changhe Aircraft Industrial Group and US-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation have signed an agreement to co-produce S-76D commercial utility helicopters.

CAIG, a subsidiary of Aviation Industry Corporation of China, a state-owned aerospace and defense company, will supply S-76D parts and assemble the helicopters, according to the agreement signed Sept 5 at the China Helicopter Exposition in the northern port city of Tianjin.

The Chinese firm is expected to deliver the first S-76D helicopter in 2016 and will have an annual production capacity of 24 helicopters by 2018. The 12-seat S-76D, which has a maximum take-off weight of 5.3 tons, is used for business, medical and rescue purposes.

APEC countries back business flights

Business aviation in China and across the Asia-Pacific region will be supported by the approval of a core statement by the transportation ministries of the 21 countries in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, forum.

APEC economies reached a consensus on the benefits of a regional framework to support the development of the business aviation sector during a meeting held in Tokyo last week.

They agreed that business aviation operations should be treated, from an economic regulatory standpoint, as non-commercial, not-for-hire aviation. As such, companies in the sector may have the freedom to fly within and between any points in all of the APEC nations, in accordance with each country's applicable requirements.

Spring Airlines 'to launch firm in Japan'

Spring Airlines, the nation's only budget carrier, is looking to replicate its successful business model by setting up an aviation company in Japan, sources said. Spring Airlines will operate flights from Japanese cities pending approval, the China Business News said. The registered Japanese company will be a venture between Spring Airlines and Japanese companies, with the Chinese airline holding a 33 percent stake. Compared with major domestic airlines, Spring Airlines' operating costs were 28 percent lower than the industry average in 2012, while its management costs were 45 percent lower than the market average.

Wealth

Film magnate becomes richest man

Wang Jianlin, the movie chain tycoon, has become China's richest man with an estimated fortune of $14 billion, overtaking beverage entrepreneur Zong Qinghou, according to Forbes China.

Analysts said that entrepreneurs who have seized opportunities in sectors with growing domestic demand saw surging personal wealth levels in the past couple of years, as the private sector is getting increasingly internationalized while still trying to cater for local tastes.

Wang, 59, is best known for his purchase of the United States-based AMC Entertainment Inc movie theater chain last year. Dalian Wanda Commercial Property Co Ltd, an unlisted company with a net worth of $16 billion, which has 72 Wanda Plaza shopping centers and 40 five-star hotels, is the major source of Wang's wealth. Wang and his family own about 64 percent of the commercial real estate company, Forbes China said.

Banking

Capital infusion for China Merchants Bank

Shenzhen-based lender China Merchants Bank Co. has raised 27.5 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) in the Shanghai portion of a rights offer, paving the way for it to complete the world's third-largest share sale this year. Investors holding 96.4 percent of the Shanghai-traded shares subscribed to the offer, Merchants Bank said in an exchange filing. The lender said last month it planned to raise 34.8 billion yuan by offering 3.07 billion Shanghai-listed shares at 9.29 yuan and 680.4 million shares traded in Hong Kong for HK$11.68 ($1.51) each.

Food

More corn imports likely this year

Corn imports by China are likely to rise by around 20-30 million metric tons every year to make up for supply shortages and to maintain self-sufficiency in grains such as wheat and rice, a researcher with a government think tank said. The country could modify its grain security strategy by allowing its corn self-sufficiency rate to fall to about 80 percent, Xu Xiaoqing, head of the rural department of the Development and Research Center, told a conference. China is expected to import 7 million tons in 2013/14, and has set a target of producing 95 percent of the corn it consumes.

China Daily-Agencies

Baidu Inc's Qunar.com Inc is planning an IPO in the US that may raise about $150 million. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 09/13/2013 page18)