Biz Scene

MARKET

Medical companies strong

Two medical companies among the seven that announced their 2007 financial reports yesterday showed robust growth in both sales and profit.

Shenzhen Joincare Pharmaceutical Group Industry Co Ltd (Joincare), a Shanghai-listed medical company, generated sales of 2.5 billion yuan, growing by 16 percent from 2006, with a profit of 713 million yuan. The company was in the red in 2006.

Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc, a subsidiary of Joincare, saw a whopping 217 percent increase in profit last year to 510 million yuan. Its sales grew 10 percent, reaching 1.75 billion yuan.

NYSE listing

Renesola Ltd, the world's largest recycler of scrap wafers used in solar panels, plans to raise as much as $200 million selling American depositary receipts (ADRs) for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company, already listed in London, will use the money to increase manufacturing capacity to wean customers from rivals, according to a statement from the Zhejiang-based company.

It didn't say how many ADRs it aims to sell. Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, Piper Jaffray Cos, CIBC World Markets Inc and Lazard Capital Markets Ltd are underwriting the offering.

GRAPEVINE

Bonded harbor area

Chongqing municipal government has regained the rights to a land covering 698,003 square meters from a local company to build Chongqing Bonded Harbor Area, reported China Business News, quoting an unnamed source.

Last October, the municipal government announced it submitted the proposal on the bonded harbor area in Cuntan harbor, part of Chongqing Port. When completed, it will be the first inland harbor area and the fifth in China after those in Shanghai, Hainan, Tianjin and Dalian.

Last October, the municipal government sold the land to Chongqing Yunneng Group, a leading real estate company in Chongqing. The local government said it will get 500 million yuan in taxes a year if the land is built into a harbor area.

Chemical group IPO

Zhengyuan Chemical Group Ltd, the largest chemicals producer in Hebei Province, is expected to get listed in Shanghai this year, reported Shanghai Securities News, citing an unnamed source.

The group, which has five chemicals-related subsidiaries, has gone through the auditing process. It plans to list 70 percent of its assets and to raise 800 million to 1.2 billion yuan through the initial public offering.

The money raised will be used in project expansion and adding new projects, which will require 2.8 billion yuan. The projects will come onstream in June 2010, and will generate additional sales of 7 billion yuan.

BIZ MOVES

NDRC vice-minister

The State Council appointed Mu Hong as vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Mu joined the NDRC in 1997. In November 2004, he was made director of the NDRC of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and in 2005, appointed vice-chairman of the autonomous region.

Union Life CEO

Raymond Chan has been cleared by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to take over as Union Life's CEO.

The 56-year-old Hongkonger has over 30 years' experience in the insurance industry, starting from AIA to AXA and Manulife.

Union Life's premium has crossed 3.04 billion yuan, a jump of 88 percent year-on-year. Its individual insurance business has soared 273 percent to 835 million yuan.

BIZ UNUSUAL

Bee for business

Some regions in China, including Shandong, are making big money raising male bees.

Male bees, which sell at 60 yuan per kilogram, are kept in iceboxes to keep them nutritious. Given the high content of protein, they are fast becoming a routine feature on dinner tables in many cities and are also being used for making healthcare products. They are gaining popularity in nations such as Japan as well.

Portrait of success

Zhao Xue, from Kaifeng in Henan province, has hit pay dirt selling dinner sets embossed with beautiful portraits.

Zhao had earlier worked for a trading company in Guangzhou after graduating from the Sun Yat-sen University in 2000. In 2003, a friend of hers brought for her a set of tableware from London. Each item in that set, including spoons and forks, were embossed with lovely portraits.

Inspired, Zhao decided to go into the business herself and opened a store called J-ME in Guangzhou. In her first month, she made a handsome profit of 7,000 yuan, drawing customers from far and wide. Profits continued to climb thereafter, with J-ME now turning into a national brand with 35 outlets only in Guangzhou.

Green oranges

Growing green oranges is helping farmers in central Hainan climb out of poverty.

Hainan is famous for its consistently warm temperature all year, which makes it possible to keep the oranges green, instead of them turning yellow when ripe. Green oranges also look brighter, taste sweeter and are juicier.

Central Hainan has the right soil conditions for oranges. The region has a plantation area of more than 33.33 million square meters, which generates 20,000 tons of oranges and sales of over 80 million yuan a year.

LOCAL

Electricity shortage

Electricity consumption in Guangdong province this year is expected to grow by more than 13 percent compared with 2007, and the gap between consumption and capacity will reach 65 million kilowatts at least, said the Guangdong economic and trade committee.

The province aims to reduce this year's energy consumption by 3.5 percent through more efficient supervision and management. The figure was 4.13 percent last year. It will also try to seek more electricity from the southwestern and central parts of China.

Energy-saving loan

China Minsheng Banking Corp, Bank of Shanghai, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have jointly provided a loan of 100 million yuan to the Shanghai government to help it build 100 additional energy performance contracting (EPC) projects.

Last September, Shanghai set up an energy-saving technology team led by Mayor Han Zheng. The team identified the EPC mechanism as one of its focus areas, and 27 such projects have been carried out.

The EPC projects aim to help enterprises save energy by offering services such as potential analysis, feasibility studies, financing, staff training, project implementation and testing.

Fixed-asset investment

Fixed-asset investment will be the growth engine for Jilin province this year, climbing to more than 500 billion yuan.

Provincial statistics show fixed-asset investment during 2005-07 amounted to 860 billion yuan, equaling that in the past 55 years. It was over 400 billion yuan last year.

(China Daily 01/11/2008 page15)