10/07/2012
WSJ: “A Chinese bidder is in advanced talks to buy the bulk of aerospace company Hawker Beechcraft Inc.’s businesses for $1.79 billion, an approach that could raise political concerns given U.S. sensitivities about previous Chinese attempts to buy American assets.
Superior Aviation Beijing Co. will have an exclusive right for 45 days to negotiate to buy Hawker’s corporate jet and propeller plane operations, the U.S. company said. If a deal is reached, Superior would serve as the opening bidder in a bankruptcy auction in which other suitors could try to top its offer.
Hawker Beechcraft filed for bankruptcy protection in May. Above, an employee shown last year working on a jet at its Wichita, Kan., plant.
Superior, which has ownership ties to Beijing’s municipal government, won’t be bidding on Hawker’s defense unit because of potential U.S. national-security concerns about foreign purchases of such assets.
Hawker’s defense business houses military technology and sells military training and light attack aircraft to U.S. and foreign governments. The business, called Hawker Beechcraft Defense Co., will continue to operate and could later be sold separately. If sold, Hawker said, the company would refund as much as $400 million of Superior’s $1.79 billion purchase price.
A winning bid by Superior would further the ambitions of China’s aerospace industry to move deeper into jet production, as well as give Superior itself a bigger role in the industry. Makers of small aircraft have been looking to China recently as a key source of demand as the market for business jets shrinks.”
via Chinese Firm Pursues Hawker – WSJ.com.
This is in line with our analysis of Chinese acquisitions: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/13/pattern-of-chinese-overseas-investments/
Posted in Aerospace, China alert, Economics, Investment in tangibles, Manufacturing |
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13/06/2012
BBC News: “Bankrupt carmaker Saab has been sold to a Chinese-Swedish investment group which aims to turn the company into a maker of electric vehicles. Saab’s administrator said the buyer was National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs). No sale price was given. Saab went bankrupt in December, two years after former owner General Motors sold it to Dutch group Spyker.
Saab “will start a new operation” to develop and produce electric cars, the administrator said in a statement.
The administrator said in April that Saab had assets to cover about a third of its debts of 13bn kronor (£1.2bn).
The chief executive and main owner of Nevs is a Chinese businessman with Swedish citizenship, Kai Johan Jiang. 
The chairman of Nevs is Karl-Erling Trogen, a former head of the truck division of truck and construction equipment maker Volvo.
“Nevs and the receivers of the Saab Automobile bankruptcy estate today signed a purchase agreement which covers the main assets of Saab Automobile AB, Saab Automobile Powertrain AB and Saab Automobile Tools AB,” Nevs and the administrators said in a joint statement.
Saab employs about 3,000 people, with its main base at Trollhattan, west Sweden, where investment in new electric car manufacturing will be made.”
via BBC News – Saab sold to Chinese-Swedish investment group.
Posted in China alert, Economics, Investment in tangibles, Manufacturing |
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30/05/2012
WSJ: “A debt-laden Spanish construction firm became the latest European company to unload assets onto eager Chinese buyers, as Europes debt woes force firms to look to China for cash.
State Grid Corp., China’s government controlled power-grid operator, said Tuesday it would buy high-voltage electricity transmission assets in Brazil from Spain’s Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA for 1.86 billion reais ($938.2 million), including debt. The deal is State Grid’s second investment in Brazil and its fourth major investment overseas, and is the most recent in a string of deals in which a European company has looked to exit an investment amid financial troubles facing the region. ACSs standing has weaken because of its debts and the falling value of investments made during Spain’s boom years. Chairman Florentino Pérez, who is also the president of Spain’s soccer club Real Madrid CF, led ACS’s expansion when liquidity was abundant and Spain’s economy was booming on the back of a real-estate bubble that imploded about five years ago. As credit dried up, ACS began to cut down on debt by shedding assets. ACS currently has more than €9.33 billion ($11.70 billion) in debt, about a half of what it had a few years ago.
Other southern European companies have also been selling their crown jewels abroad to raise cash. Portugal, for example, is attracting significant investments from China because of its presence in former colonies that are resurfacing as high-growth markets, rich in natural resources. In December, fellow state-controlled power giant China Three Gorges Corp. won a 21% stake in EDP-Energias de Portugal SA— which has significant Brazil operations—with a €2.69 billion bid.
via China State Grid to Buy Brazilian Assets – WSJ.com.
Related post: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/13/pattern-of-chinese-overseas-investments/
Posted in China alert, Economics, Infrastructure, Investment in tangibles, Natural resources, Recession |
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07/05/2012
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee September 7, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Hindu: “The U.S. has agreed to treat West Bengal as a partner state for investment in the changed political situation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata on Monday.
“As per partner state, they will invest in West Bengal which was not taking place due to the political situation in the past,” Ms. Banerjee told reporters after a 52-minute meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She also said that the issue of FDI in retail did not come up during the meeting. She said that the areas identified for U.S. investment were IT, software sector, manufacturing, deep sea port, tourism, health care and education. “They will give full support for economic and business development,” Mr. Banerjee said, adding that Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh and U.S. Ambassador Nancy Powell would coordinate and monitor the progress.”
via The Hindu : News / National : U.S. agrees to treat West Bengal as partner for investment: Mamata.
Posted in Economics, GeoPolitics, India alert, Investment in tangibles, Manufacturing, Technology |
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03/05/2012
Reuters: “China’s Bright Food will take control of breakfast cereal maker Weetabix, beloved by generations of British children, in the biggest foreign acquisition by a Chinese food group.
State-owned Bright Food has agreed to buy a 60 percent stake in a deal which puts a value of 1.2 billion pounds $1.94 billion, including debt, on the private-equity owned company that coined the slogan “Have you had your Weetabix today?”
The Shanghai-based group has been on the acquisition trail, seeking to raise its profile and cater for its rapidly growing home market. Weetabix is its second foreign purchase in a year and its first in Europe after other deals fell through. Eighty-year-old Weetabix is Britain’s second biggest maker of breakfast cereals and cereal bars after Kellogg. Its brands include Alpen muesli and Ready Break as well as Weetabix, which lays claim to being Britain’s No. 1 breakfast cereal for under-5s and is made from wheat grown within 50 miles 80 km of its base in southern England.
“As China’s leading food group, we are pleased to become the controlling shareholder of Weetabix,” Bright Food chairman Wang Zhongnan said in a statement on Thursday. “Weetabix has an excellent product portfolio, including leading British cereal brand Weetabix and other category-leading brands. “Private equity owners Lion Capital and Weetabix management will keep a 40 percent stake. The quintessentially British breakfast cereal group was founded in 1932 by the secretive George family and soon producing its iconic bricks of wheat. It was bought by a private equity firm in 2004.
Bright Food now sees a big opportunity for Weetabix in China, where breakfast is a very important meal and there is a trend towards healthy eating.The group, which makes “White Rabbit” candy, bought majority stakes in Australias Manassen Foods and New Zealands Synlait Milk over the past two years.”
via UPDATE 2-Chinas Bright Food buys Weetabix | Reuters.
Related post: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/13/pattern-of-chinese-overseas-investments/
Posted in Affluence, China alert, Consumer, Health, Investment in tangibles |
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26/04/2012
CNN Money: “Chinese conglomerates, on a mission to expand their global footprint and avoid “anti-dumping” tariffs, are shifting more of their production to America.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the United States, cash-strapped states desperate for revenue and jobs, are rolling out the welcome mat for foreign companies that can guarantee both. More Chinese manufacturers have been launching their own U.S. facilities in the last five years, said Thilo Hanemann, research director at Rhodium Group, a New York-based economic advisory group. The biggest investments are being made by Chinese firms with products that have been slapped with hefty anti-dumping tariffs, he said.”
via http://d2pnews.com/index.php/2012/04/24/chinese-manufacturers-offshore-to-the-u-s/.
Related post: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/13/reverse-outsourcing/
Posted in China alert, Economics, Good news, Investment in tangibles, Manufacturing |
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26/04/2012
New York Times: “As Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China tours Europe this week, it is no accident that Germany occupies a special place on his itinerary. After all, Germany is the one European Union country that has a trade surplus with China. And it has also been a focus of Chinese investment in Europe — so much so that analysts say some Germans are growing wary as Chinese businesses have been snapping up German engineering companies.
Mr. Wen, making his sixth visit in eight years, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Sunday opened the annual trade fair in Hanover, billed as the world’s leading showcase for industrial technology. They plan to witness the signing of an economic agreement at the Volkswagen headquarters, in Wolfsburg, on Monday. According to German media reports, the deal will include the opening of a new car plant in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang.
Mr. Wen’s agenda, as with a follow-up trip planned by his likely successor, Vice Prime Minister Li Keqiang, seems aimed at presenting an aura of business as usual, even as trade tensions flare with the West and the Communist Party at home is embroiled in its biggest scandal in years, involving the deposed Politburo member Bo Xilai.”
via China Invests in Germany Amid Uncertainty – NYTimes.com.
Two birds with one stone: Collaboration with Germany & VW; and opening up a major auto plant in Xinjiang, one of the two provinces with significant unrest (the other, of course, is Tibet).
Posted in China alert, Diplomacy, Economics, Ethnic clash, GeoPolitics, Good news, Investment in tangibles, Manufacturing, unrest |
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06/04/2012
The Hindu: “Agitating jewellers and bullion traders on Friday called on Congress president Sonia Gandhito press for their demand for
removal of excise duty on unbranded jewellery. “We today met Sonia Gandhi and requested her to tell the government to roll back excise duty on unbranded jewellery, reduce customs duty and lower TDS on sale of jewellery,” All India Swarankar Sangh President Madhukar Chachad told reporters after the meeting. Ms. Gandhi, he said, “has assured us that she will forward our demands to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for further action”.
Ahead of the meeting of jewellers with Ms. Gandhi, the Congress had asked the government to look into the demands of jewellers, who have been agitating for more than a fortnight. “Congress has asked the government to consider the demand of jewellers sympathetically,” AICC General Secretary and media department chief Janardhan Dwivedi said. Bullion traders and jewellers are protesting since the presentation of the Budget which had imposed excise duty on unbranded jewellery, raised customs duty on gold and proposed TDS requirement on sale of on sale of jewellery.”
via The Hindu : News / National : Jewellers meet Sonia, demand duty roll back.
The purpose of the excise duty is to try and divert Indians from investing in ‘economically inactive’ gold into ‘proactive investiments’ such as stocks and shares or even property. If this works, India will stop being the world’s number 1 importer of gold and China will become number 1.
Posted in China alert, Economics, India alert, Investment in tangibles |
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03/04/2012
Reuters: “German businessman Norbert Scheuch was bowled over by his red-carpet treatment on a visit to China late last year and by how fast the country’s largest construction firm sealed the deal to buy his company. The head of Sany Heavy Industry, which is controlled by China’s richest man, Liang Wengen, personally gave Scheuch a tour of their plant and then had a top manager drive him to the airport and wait with him for his flight home. “Nobody would ever do that in Europe,” said Scheuch, CEO of concrete pump maker Putzmeister.
“The Chinese made it very clear from the beginning they wanted the company immediately,” he added. Barely a month later, Sany’s top negotiator Xiang Wenbo was in the offices of law firm Shearman Sterling in Frankfurt at 3 am to sign the deal to buy Putzmeister for 360 million euros ($472 million) after a nine-hour session with the notary.
The purchase, which gives Sany a technological edge over its rivals, illustrates how Chinese investors are becoming more savvy about foreign takeovers, not just to gain access to raw materials or patents but as an engine for growth. By keeping the German management in place after its acquisition and announcing that Putzmeister would become its new international distribution hub outside China for concrete machinery, Sany also defied the clichés about Chinese practices and assuaged local anxiety among employees. “I had to promise the Chinese solemnly that our management would stay on board,” Scheuch said.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy and home to many small and medium-sized companies famed for their technological know-how and exporting prowess, is especially attractive for cash-rich Chinese businesses looking to build a global profile. Some German and other European companies also look cheap to Chinese buyers after the euro zones sovereign debt crisis.”
Rest of long article is equally interesting.
via Insight: Bullish China shops in industrial Germany | Reuters.
Related articles:
Posted in China alert, Economics, Good news, Investment in tangibles, Manufacturing |
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09/03/2012
The Hindu: “In a move that will give a big push to broadband penetration in the country, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has cleared an ambitious plan to distribute 50-lakh (5 million) tablet PCs (personal computers) to students in the next financial year (2012-13). A note containing the nitty-gritty of the ambitious Aakash-2 project is likely to be placed before the Cabinet soon. …
The government wants to initially assemble the tablet PCs through its public sector undertakings (PSUs) and eventually indigenise it to maintain cost-competitiveness.
The DoT has declared that the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), the research and design wing of the Department of Information Technology, will be the nodal agency for successfully implementing the Aakash-2 project. It will be assisted by the Indian Institute of Technology-Mumbai. They will be responsible for finalising specifications, ensuring quality and testing the tablet PCs. The DoT has decided to rope in two PSUs — Bharat Electronics Ltd and ITI Ltd — for manufacturing and procuring the tablet PCs that will be priced between $55 and $70 (around Rs.2,750 and Rs.3,500).”
via The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Gadgets : DoT clears distribution of 50 lakh tablet PCs in schools, colleges.
This initiative will help push India further into the information era both in terms of the next generation of knowledge workers as well as in terms of hardware development.
Related page: https://chindia-alert.org/economic-factors/information-technology/
Posted in India alert, Investment in tangibles, Technology |
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CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 