Biz Scene

MARKET

Capacity boost

BP Plc and China Petrochemical Corp plan to invest 3.5 billion yuan to almost triple the capacity of a chemical plant in southwestern China.

The two companies signed an agreement to add an acetic-acid unit with annual capacity of 650,000 metric tons in Chongqing, Sinopec Group, as China Petrochemical is known, said in a statement yesterday. The capacity of the plant, which will produce the industrial chemicals used to make paint, adhesives and printing ink, will exceed 1 million tons a year after the unit starts operating in 2011.

Bank posts loss

Harvest Fund Management Co, Deutsche Bank AG's partner in China, said it booked a fourth-quarter loss of 3.6 billion yuan for its overseas fund as its Hong Kong investments tumbled in the period.

The Harvest Company Equity Fund's net asset value dropped 12.1 percent to 0.879 yuan from Oct 12 to end-December, the Beijing-based fund house said in a statement yesterday.

Harvest's fund had 21 billion yuan, or 80.25 percent of its assets, invested in Hong Kong and 0.32 percent in the US under the qualified domestic institutional investor program, according to the statement. About 80 percent of the fund was invested in stocks, it said.

GRAPEVINE

Ad venture

Japanese advertising firm Dentsu Inc plans to set up an Internet advertising joint venture in Beijing with Chinese counterpart Focus Media Holding Ltd, the Nikkei business daily reported yesterday.

Dentsu hopes to better compete with US and European rivals that have already set up operations in the booming market by teaming up with the major Chinese agency, the paper said.

The joint venture, to be established in March, will be capitalized at $9 million, with Dentsu taking a 67 percent stake and Focus Media the rest, it said.

Dentsu will consolidate its existing online ad subsidiaries in China into the venture, the Nikkei said, adding its first-year sales are targeted at 5 billion yen ($47 million).

BIZ UNUSUAL

Bumper banquet

The Shangri-La Hotel in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, is offering a Spring Festival feast for 198,000 yuan. The luxury banquet includes eight dishes for eight people.

Each dish will be served with French wine or brandy and cigars. The hotel said it has already received a booking for its extravagant feast.

Boarding service

Pet shops in Shenyang, Liaoning province are offering a boarding service for pet owners when they return to their hometowns for Spring Festival.

"We're offering the service for pet owners who are going away on holiday and we've received many bookings already. The fee is fixed according to the size of the animal and the owner's requirements, but it's usually around 50 yuan per day," a pet shop owner said.

BIZ MOVES

New vice-president

Chen Ming was appointed senior vice-president of online game company Perfect World and general manager of its Shanghai branch.

In 2006-07, Chen was chief technology officer of another online game company, The 9. Before that, he had taken important positions in multinationals such as HP and Lucent.

Chen is expected to bring his 18 years of experience in online game exploration and technology support to Perfect World and its Shanghai branch, which is currently under construction.

Telecom move

Huang Zhiqin has been appointed deputy director of the China Academy of Telecommunication Technology by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

He was also appointed vice-president of Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group.

Before the appointment, Huang was vice-president of China Putian Corp, another telecommunication equipment manufacturer.

Currently, Datang is being restructured. Huang is expected to help advance the process.

Hotel hires

Shanghai Millennium Hongqiao Hotel, a subsidiary of Millennium and Copthorne Hotels, recently appointed Zhang Shuiqing as general manager.

Zhang was born in Singapore and has more than 20 years' experience in hotel management for luxury international hotels such as the Westin Stamford and Westin Plaza and Singapore Shangri-la Hotel.

The hotel also appointed Li Qingqi as director of sales and marketing. Li has more than 10 years' experience in hotel management.

LOCAL

Tianjin investment

Tianjin plans to invest 15.8 billion yuan into 20 innovative projects in the next three years, with 3.9 billion going to research and development.

The project areas include biological pharmacy, green energy and high-end equipment.

Outsourcing city

Guangzhou was the 12th city added to the nation's "base cities for service outsourcing" list a few days ago.

The city's service outsourcing industry is booming, and was worth more than $5 billion in 2007. The local government will invest at least 200 million yuan per year to accelerate the industry's development in Guangzhou.

Animation funding

The local government of Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, will invest 30 million yuan per year in the city's animation industry.

The government is trying to encourage development of the animation industry in Taiyuan, and the funding will go to technology improvement, subsidies for animators and financial rewards for outstanding work.

(China Daily 01/23/2008 page15)