Brazil: Chery Face just the start of more Chinese investment
Friday sees the official launch in São Paulo of the Chery Face, on sale in Brazil for R$31,900 plus freight.
The Chinese car maker has sold about 1,900 imported cars in Brazil this year, mostly its Cielo and Tiggo models. Soon it will build them in Brazil, too. Chery has reportedly chosen Jacareí in São Paulo state for a planned $700m factory to make up to 170,000 cars a year from 2013. Continue reading »
Americas markets wrap: Stocks gain on Slim’s telecoms move
Latin American markets shrugged off early losses sparked by increased US jobless claims as Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim moved to increase his telecoms holdings in the region and Chile reported faster-than-expected economic growth.
The Chilean economy expanded 6.8 per cent in June from the previous year. “Today’s release joins a string of readings making up a blistering normalization of activity after the earthquake”, wrote BarCap’s Jimena Zuniga. “At this point, based on a projection of the recovery trend of the economy ahead of the earthquake, we think the “normalization” effect has largely played out. However, the recovery in coming months will probably continue at a robust above-trend pace.” Continue reading »
Enap flotation spells good news for debt reduction
Chile’s new conservative government has rowed back from the partial privatization of one sacred state company, vowing to keep copper giant Codelco in state hands. But it is speeding forward with plans that could see a stake of up to 20 per cent of Enap, the state energy company, being floated on the stock market.
That should spell good news for the company’s attempts to reduce its $3.7bn debt, which Fitch Ratings today highlighted. Though it expects to assign an an A rating to Enap’s upcoming $500m debt issue (the 10-year notes will be used to refinance short-term debt), Fitch noted tartly that Enap didn’t deserve such a stellar rating at all, and only got it because, as a state-owned company, it is rated the same as the sovereign. Continue reading »
Baidu: we don’t like censorship either
Until now, Baidu has been the faceless bad guy: China’s biggest search engine has increased market share, after its rival Google refused to bow to censorship demands.
But Baidu wants you to like it. Today its founder and chief executive Robin Li hosted a meet-and-greet with journalists, and then rang the Nasdaq’s opening bell from Beijing.
Censorship, he argued, isn’t good for Baidu either. Continue reading »
Chile’s blazing stock market : selectivity is the key
Chile’s stock market is on fire – it breached a historic barrier of 4,400 points this week after a record-setting few days in which it hit high after high. Are the flames going to be extinguished?
Not quite yet. How much further the market can go is debatable, after a rise of more than 23 per cent this year alone in the Ipsa index and 35 per cent in the last 12 months. Continue reading »
Central and eastern European stock markets fell on Thursday – and Hungarian equities were the worst performers. The Budapest index was down 1.8 per cent to 22,981.64, despite news that year-on-year industrial output had risen 15 per cent in June, its fastest increase in four years. OTP bank lost 4.3 per cent, although it remains 18.4 per cent above its June low.
Late in the day, the forint gained 0.3 per cent against the euro to below 280, after the government announced a budget surplus of 36.1bn forint last month. Continue reading »
By Beranger Guille of mergermarket
China’s openness to foreign ownership of strategic assets may be facing another big test.
SunCorp Technologies, a Hong Kong telecoms assembler, has signed an agreement to buy Top Match, a Chinese fibre-optic network operator, for HKD 4.98bn ($641m).
But the deal could face regulatory hurdles – with foreign ownership in China’s telecoms industry capped at 49 per cent. Continue reading »
Out with the old in the Nigerian market
After a night of the long knives at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the prospect of a well-run – and potentially lucrative – bourse has edged closer.
Late on Wednesday the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria’s capital markets regulator, declared an inglorious end to Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke’s decade as NSE chief executive, removing her from her post with immediate effect. Continue reading »
Mexicana: a troubled player in a turbulent market
Oh, Mexicana – so far from profits, and so near to the United States.
Mexico’s oldest airline, which has filed for bankruptcy and suspended ticket sales, never looked well placed to compete with American majors and domestic low-cost carriers.
And so, at a time when aviation is starting to rebound in Asia, only one traditional Latin American carrier has survived recent storms with much credibility. Continue reading »
Liverpool: No ferry across the Yangtze
Rumours of China buying the reds are greatly exaggerated – that’s the message from China today, where the FT’s Jamil Anderlini has been doing some digging:
A spokesperson for China Investment Corp, the country’s main sovereign wealth fund, told the Financial Times on Thursday they had never heard of a plan to buy Liverpool or of Kenneth Huang, the man widely reported to be fronting a Chinese bid to buy the English Premier League club. Continue reading »
It’s become a hoary cliché that the Bric economies are leading a modern day “scramble for Africa” – and it’s a scramble that’s often frustratingly difficult to quantify.
But Standard Bank has waded through the mish-mash of data and emerged with a prediction: that over the next decade emerging economies will contribute 30 per cent of the new foreign investment coming into Africa. While the bulk of African FDI is still from the old economies, the momentum is all with the Brics. So is the drama and the buzz. Continue reading »
Citi looks to tap Indonesia fever
After years of jumping through the hoops of Indonesian bureaucracy, Citi bank has finally made its move into the booming Indonesian equities market.
With a seat on the Jakarta stock exchange, a 15-member team of researchers and brokers, Citi will soon begin trading domestic shares directly, instead of going through local intermediaries. Continue reading »
Foreign Office builds economic reinforcements in Brics
It is admittedly a bit late. But Britain’s diplomatic service are finally leaping on to the Brics bandwagon. William Hague, foreign secretary, is setting up a new unit within the foreign office to coordinate strategy on emerging economic powers.
No list of countries yet, or acronym; the Foreign Office is far to smart to offend all those nations that don’t make the cut. But the function the team will play is being compared to that of the counter-terrorism or counter-proliferation units. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* Taiwan begins trade talks with Singapore
* China steel execs jailed for leaking secrets
* Portugal Telecom profits buoyed by Vivo
* China to test banks for 60% home-price drop
* Venezuela to repay $20bn debt to China with oil Continue reading »
Asia markets wrap: Shanghai bows to stress-tests
Evidence of a recovery in US employment and services failed to make a clear impression on Asia’s emerging markets on Thursday.
Most stock indices saw minor losses, with the Shanghai Composite falling 0.7 per cent on news that China’s banking regulator has ordered lenders to stress-test themselves against a major fall in house prices. ICBC was down 1.4 per cent. Continue reading »
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