IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Sogou plans IPO offering up to $5b

The head of China's third-biggest search engine Sogou says he expects his company to launch an initial public offering in the United States with a valuation as high as $5 billion. The money would be used to close the gap with mobile market leader Baidu Inc. Sogou, whose name means "search dog", plans to sell about 10 percent of its shares in an IPO that will probably be held this year, Chief Executive Officer Wang Xiaochuan said in an interview. The company, which is backed by social media giant Tencent Holdings and Sohu.com Inc, has not formally hired banks to run the listing. Sohu shares to a 10-month high on Jan 4. While Baidu remains the biggest provider across all platforms in China, it has been under siege after a scandal over medical advertising. Smaller rivals, including Sogou and Qihoo 360 Technology Co, are nipping at its heels and winning mobile users. Wang said he planned to use part of the IPO proceeds to improve search results.

ANZ sells stake in Shanghai bank

Australia & New Zealand Banking Corp sold its 20 percent stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank for A$1.84 billion (1.3 billion euros; 1.1 billion), marking Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott's latest move to unwind an Asian expansion that has sapped profits. China COSCO Shipping Corp and Shanghai Sino-Poland Enterprise Management Development Corp bought 10 percent stakes in the Chinese bank, the Melbourne-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. The stake was valued at A$2 billion in ANZ's 2015 annual report.

Alibaba pays more taxes in 2016

Alibaba and its financial branch paid a total of 23.8 billion yuan ($3.41 billion; 3.29 billion euros; 2.8 billion) in taxes in 2016, up 33 percent compared with 2015, the company said on Jan 3. According to Alibaba, the company led merchants operating on its platforms, upstream manufacturers and logistics companies to pay totaling at least 200 billion yuan taxes last year and creating more than 30 million jobs. The company has also catalyzed new businesses such as the outsourcing of customer service, product photography, quality testing, e-shop design, recruitment and training for e-commerce. There are over 45,000 such service providers on Alibaba's shopping platforms, Taobao and Tmall, the company said, adding that those providers registered 142-percent growth in income year-on-year as of Sept 30.

China-Serbia visa-free entry starts Jan 15

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told a news conference on Dec 30 that the country's agreement with China for mutual visa-free tourism will take effect on Jan 15. He said all internal procedures have been completed. Dacic added that the visa-free regime will start 30 days after the two countries inform each other officially. He added that the Serbian government will continue to cancel the need for visas with as many countries as possible. According to earlier reports, the policy will recognize holders of ordinary passports of either country for stays of up to 30 days.

Chinese steel pulls out of the red

China's large and medium-sized steel mills reported profits of 33.15 billion yuan ($4.77 billion; 4.57 billion euros; 3.9 billion) in the first eleven months of 2016, according to the latest report of the China Iron and Steel Association. That compared with a loss of 52.91 billion yuan in the same period of 2015, CISA data showed. Of the 99 steel mills tracked by CISA, the average profit margin stood at 1.28 percent in the period, the CISA report says. China's manufacturing sector continues to expand, with the official manufacturing PMI, which surveys larger companies, standing at 51.4 in December, lower than the 51.7 in November but above the boom-bust line of 50 for the fifth straight month. The steel industry still has a long way to go to increase profit margins, said Li Xinchuang, CISA vice-president, adding that this year the industry will continue to cut excessive and outdated capacity.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/06/2017 page24)