Macau: propped up by high-rollers, but for how long?
Here we go again. Another sharp sell-off of Macau gaming shares on China slowdown fears. Industry forecasts have always underestimated Chinese high-rollers’ propensity to gamble, so are the latest prediction of gloom to be trusted? Continue reading »
Up the value chain: teething problems for China’s Goodbaby
Goodbaby is considered one of China’s most successful home-grown consumer brands – it dominates the baby stroller and “durable juvenile products” market at home while charging developed market prices for top-end products sold under its own brands.
But, despite having moved up the value chain, the company is still feeling the heat of rising costs. Continue reading »
Hengqin: another city out of thin air
Hengqin Island used to be known for one thing, and one thing only: oysters. But today, its many oyster shacks and fish farms are being demolished to make way for highways and skyscrapers.
The Chinese island located next to the casino town of Macao is being transformed into a special economic zone offering business concessions not found anywhere else in the country. Continue reading »
Sotheby’s to explore Chinese interior
Sotheby’s has just announced its roadshow schedule ahead of the spring auctions in Hong Kong. This year, it has added the Chinese city of Chengdu to the list of stops.
Best known for pandas and tea houses, the provincial capital of Sichuan province has never really been on the international art world map, and Sotheby’s exhibition is not going to change that. But it is a sign of the times. Continue reading »
Hong Kong’s rising shadow bankers
Has a mainland-China-style credit crunch hit Hong Kong?
There is certainly a lot less liquidity sloshing about the place, thanks to a combination of Basel III capital requirements and more Hong Kong dollar deposits being converted into renminbi – a currency widely expected to appreciate against both the US dollar and the Hong Kong dollar, which is pegged to the greenback. Continue reading »
Asian wine buyers head to Burgundy
Bordeaux vineyards hoping for an early recovery in prices would be disappointed by the weekend sales in Hong Kong but Burgundy’s top names may be the “new Lafite” as the region’s top wines continue to fetch enthusiastic bids.
At the first major wine auctions in Asia this year, collectors stayed away from the younger vintages of Bordeaux’s best known châteaux, with cases of the 1996 Château Lafite Rothschild unsold. Continue reading »
D&G in HK: snapping at snappers
Dolce & Gabbana has fallen out of fashion in Hong Kong. It’s not that the Italian fashion house has failed to impress with its Fall/Winter collection. The company just happens to have touched a very sore point with local people: the favour allegedly shown to mainland Chinese tourists.
It all started when a local tabloid newspaper reported last week that security guards stopped people from snapping pictures outside its flagship Hong Kong store in Canton Road. Continue reading »
Chinese workers and railway misery
A heart-breaking letter from a Chinese factory worker has gone viral this week. It tells of an appalling level of incompetence at the Chinese railway ministry and illustrates powerfully the rising disillusionment among the nation’s massive army of migrant workers. Continue reading »
Minimum wage hike leaves few smiling
The new year begins with what ought to be good news for workers in southern China.
First, Shenzhen announced that it would raise local minimum wage from Rmb1,320 ($210) a month to Rmb1,500, the highest in the country. Then, a Guangzhou newspaper reported that cities in Guangdong province were planning to raise wages by 13 per cent on average this year.
The reaction from factory workers is cynical. Continue reading »
Chinese stocks going cheap as year ends – for good reason?
Let’s think warm thoughts as families across China gather round their dinner tables to celebrate the winter solstice festival on Thursday evening and assume that China’s economy is in for a soft landing and will continue to grow at around 8 per cent next year, as the more bullish economists are forecasting.
Supposing they are right, would you put your money into shares of Chinese companies? Continue reading »
China’s brand copycats go public
How do Chinese companies make their products stand out in an ultra competitive market? For at least two of them, the answer lies in other people’s brands. Continue reading »
Carlsberg’s China deal goes flat
For a while it looked as if Carlsberg was going to get an unexpected Christmas bonus from its investment in China’s Chongqing Brewery, whose shares had risen nearly 60 per cent this year by the end of November.
But a notice to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on December 5 revealed that it was all froth. Continue reading »
Auction houses prepare for leaner times
Christie’s, the auction house, sold less in this year’s autumn sales in Hong Kong than it did last year, the first year-on-year decline since 2008 and evidence that Asian demand for art is finally cooling.
Having been clobbered in 2009, auction houses in the city – both large and small alike – are hoping to weather any coming storm by looking to both new buyers, and new types of art.
Continue reading »
Hong Kong: still the great mall of China
Is Hong Kong losing its allure as a launching pad for foreign brands looking to tap into the Chinese market?
The decision by Gap to set up shops in Shanghai and Beijing in 2010 before making its debut in Hong Kong last week certainly seems to suggest that some foreign businesses have no qualms about bypassing Hong Kong and taking a more direct route into the mainland’s estimated $2,100bn retail market. Continue reading »
Guangdong governor, eyeing promotion, talks straight on euro crisis
Bloomberg
The acting governor of Guangdong province has caused a bit of a stir by telling visiting journalists and analysts that the “factory of the world” faced a downturn as bad as the one in 2008/2009.
“The European debt crisis has hit the exports sector dramatically. Export in Guangdong is facing as serious a challenge as in 2008,” said Zhu Xiaodan. Such straight talk from a government official in China, where bad press is not encouraged, is rare. So what’s going on? Continue reading »
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