Nokia plans to focus on China

Nokia Oyj, the struggling Finnish phone maker, plans to invest $250 million in a fund that will invest in mobile communications companies worldwide, with an increased focus on China. Nokia Growth Partners, the venture capital arm of Nokia, will continue to invest in companies in the US, Europe and Asia, Nokia said in a statement on Tuesday.

New urbanization outline on way

China's new urbanization outline will peg the expansion of new land for building purposes to the number of farmers a city absorbs; a new method that aims to address tension over surging demand for land for development and dwindling farmland. Economic Information, a newspaper affiliated with Xinhua News Agency, said on Tuesday that an outline of the new urbanization plan co-drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Land and Resources and several other ministries is expected to be rolled out in March.

Wanda targets assets growth

Dalian Wanda Group holds 12.9 million square meters of property, and is the world's second-largest property company by assets, the chairman of the property conglomerate said. Wang Jianlin told the group's annual meeting that the company aims to significantly expand its assets value to 350 billion yuan ($56 billion) in 2013, up from 300 billion yuan in 2012, according to a report from caijing.com.

China-Iceland FTA has breakthrough

China and Iceland have had "breakthroughs on all the major issues" during the sixth round of talks on their free-trade agreement held in Beijing from Jan 22 to 24, China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website on Tuesday. The two sides agreed the bilateral FTA, once signed, will be a milestone for strengthening two-way ties, the statement said.

Foreign banks' best performance

Foreign-capitalized banks in Shanghai earned total profits of 12.5 billion yuan ($1.99 billion) in 2012, their strongest ever performance, according to statistics from the Shanghai Banking Regulatory Bureau. By the end of December 2012, foreign-capitalized banks in Shanghai had total assets of 1.08 trillion yuan, total deposits of 572.9 billion yuan and a loan book worth 424.3 billion yuan. Their rate of non-performing loans was just 0.37 percent, lower than the national banking industry average.

Moutai warns of growth slowdown

Kweichow Moutai, the well-known Chinese liquor manufacturer, expects to see a slowdown in its growth rate this year, as a result of the central government's planned crackdown on spending and extravagance. Yuan Renguo, Kweichow's chairman, said the company expects annual revenue of 41.6 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) by the end of 2013 - an 18 percent year-on-year rise, but still well down on its expected targets. Yuan said the group's production capacity hit 33,000 tons last year, realizing total revenue of 35.2 billion yuan. It paid 11.5 billion yuan in tax, and exported $160 million worth of products.

Gome forecasts 2012 net loss

Hong Kong-traded Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd, China's leading electronics chain retailer by revenue, issued a profit warning on Monday. In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Gome forecast a net loss in 2012, attributing it to declining revenue, soaring rental costs and losses incurred by its e-commerce business. It did not specify the size of the loss.

CSR seeks funds after contracts

China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp Ltd, the world's largest maker of electric locomotives, is raising funds after winning huge contracts. The company issued 1 billion yuan ($159 million) of ultra-short-term bonds on Friday, after a similar issuance of 2 billion yuan in December. The bond issues came after CSR announced a total of 22.3 billion yuan worth of contracts over the past month.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily 01/30/2013 page14)