IN BRIEF

Auto

Car powerhouses can officially start work

China's fourth-largest automaker, Chang'an Automobile Group, said on July 18 that its joint venture with Europe's second-largest automaker, PSA Peugeot Citroen, was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

The development signals the start of operations for the venture, agreed to last July in Paris. The venture will have a registered capital of 4 billion yuan (434 million euros) and an initial investment of 8.4 billion yuan.

Analysts said that the new venture will greatly improve PSA's competitiveness against its international rivals in China, the world's largest auto market.

Audi lays out plans to attack luxury market

German luxury carmaker Audi AG plans to more than double its production capacity in China over the next four years in an aggressive move to continue its reign in the fast-growing luxury segment.

An Tiecheng, president of Sino-German joint venture FAW Volkswagen Automobile Co Ltd, said it will hike the production capacity of Audi cars to around 700,000 units a year by 2015 from its current 300,000.

According to the plan, the joint venture will have an annual Audi production capacity of 500,000 units at its home base in Changchun, Jilin province.

Healthcare

Siemens' health unit to focus on smaller cities

China is expected to be the second-largest market in the world for Siemens Ltd's healthcare sector in the next two years, driven by the company's new five-year plan focusing on the development of basic medical care.

"During the next five years, Siemens' healthcare division will make great efforts to enter the medical care market in China's second- and third-tier cities and rural areas, in which our business growth will soon lift China to the division's second-largest market after the US," said Wu Wenhui, a manager of the Northeast Asia division.

Wu said by 2015, revenues from the basic healthcare business will account for more than half of Siemens Healthcare's total income in China.

Property

S&P downgrades China's property sector

Standard & Poor's has downgraded its credit rating outlook on China's property sector to negative, pointing to worsening borrowing conditions and a likely slump in sales volumes.

The rating agency downgrade came as analysts warned of a potential price war among developers starved of cash by Beijing's efforts to rein in the residential property sector.

"In the near term, what worries us most is the liquidity position of developers who are facing very tight lending controls," said Bei Fu, an analyst at S&P in Hong Kong. "In this situation, developers really need to rely on their own sales. But this is a highly uncertain prospect given government attempts to suppress the market and the fact sales volumes have already started to come down."

Market

Liffe admits its first member from China

The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, also known as NYSE Liffe, has admitted its first member from China in a sign of growing interest in the trading of derivatives on overseas exchanges from Asia's most populous country.

GF Futures (Hong Kong) Co Ltd, a Hong Kong based subsidiary of GF Group, based in Guangdong province, will now be able to trade on behalf of clients, including Chinese individuals and institutional investors.

Last year, GF was admitted as a member of Eurex, the futures exchange operated by Deutsche Borse. This was Eurex's first Chinese member, and was followed in April by Nanhua Futures (Hong Kong) Co Ltd.

Aviation

Hainan carrier weighs European presence

HNA Group, China's fourth-largest airline group, is seeking to become the first Chinese airline to invest in the European aviation sector by bidding for a Hungarian carrier and a German-based airport operator.

Wu Feng, manager of the brand center of HNA group, said his company is targeting Malev Hungarian Airlines and Hochtief Airport Ltd Co, an airport management company that is based in Essen, Germany.

The impetus for the Hungarian investment is coming entirely from the Haikou, Hainan-based company. Wu said there had been no specific proposals yet involving the price or method of investment in Malev.

Finance

Deutsche Bank opens offshore bond tracker

Deutsche Bank AG recently launched a tradable offshore yuan bond index tracker in the latest effort by an international bank to boost its presence in the growing offshore Chinese currency business.

The index tracker, which is the first of its kind in the nascent yuan bond market, monitors the total return of yuan-denominated bonds and certificates of deposit that are at least 1 billion yuan (109 million euros) in size.

Trade

Fastener makers claim unfair treatment by EU

The China Fastener Industry Association (CFIA) strongly demanded the lifting of discriminatory anti-dumping duties from the EU on fasteners from China in an open letter sent to the Council of European Union on Monday.

Feng Jinyao, president of the association, said the country's fastener industry has suffered great losses in the recent two years because of the EU's unfair treatment of Chinese fastener makers. The association is a representative body of nearly 500 Chinese fastener manufacturers.

Feng said the anti-dumping duties have affected the normal trade between China and the EU, while the EU market has also endured losses.

Acquisition

NVC looking to acquire European lighting firms

Hong Kong-listed NVC Lighting Holding Ltd, a leading Chinese lighting products maker, plans to acquire small- and mid-sized European firms, as the firm aims to expand into new markets.

"We will combine the customer bases, the branding capacity and the research and development (R&D) strength of those firms with the manufacturing power of NVC," said chairman Wu Changjiang, at a recent news conference.

The company is actively tapping the emerging markets of India, Brazil and South Africa, Wu said. It just signed an agreement with the Olympic Council of Asia on Monday to become its long-term lighting and service partner, having supplied the World Cup in South Africa and the Olympic Games in Beijing and served as the official supplier of the Asian Games in Guangzhou.

Internet

Baidu signs agreement with music studios

Baidu, China's largest Internet search engine, has signed an

agreement with major music studios for licensed distribution of music through its mp3 search service.

The partner is One-Stop China, a joint venture company whose shareholders are Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music.

Under the terms of the deal, Baidu will remunerate music content owners on a per-play and per-download basis for all tracks delivered through its mp3 search service.

China Daily-Agencies