Biz Scene

MARKET

Education shares

Raffles Education Corp, operator of 29 private schools in Asia, said it plans to raise "a few hundred million dollars" selling shares of its Chinese unit for the first time, part of a regional expansion strategy.

The offering will be made as early as July in Hong Kong, Chairman and CEO Chew Hua Seng said.

Cancellations of some share sales will not deter Raffles Education because demand for educational services will be unaffected by a slowdown in global economic growth, he said.

Guyana refinery

China's Bosai Minerals Group Co, a private mining company in Chongqing, will invest 5 billion yuan to build a 1-million-ton alumina refinery in Guyana.

Bosai will launch construction in the first half of 2009 and start production two years later, said the company's spokesman Zhang Yonghua. Bosai is also considering building an aluminum smelter if the alumina project is successful, Zhang added.

BIZ UNUSUAL

Bullish on real estate

Jia Yongqing, a real estate developer in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, has hired a buffalo for 300 yuan per day to advertise his property projects.

He has dressed up the buffalo with information on his business and makes it go around spreading the message of its property projects.

"This is a special new year greeting," Jia said, adding that he wants to show to the world that he believes the real estate market will not be affected by the government's macro-control policies and will continue to be bullish this year.

But just as a bullish market is often difficult to control, so is Jia's messenger - on its very first week of work, it flew into a rage and refused to toe the boss' line.

'Uncle waiters'

Restaurants usually recruit young waiters, but Love Western Food' in Beijing's Xicheng district hires waiters who are all in their 50s and is gaining popularity for its "uncle waiters".

Wang Chunxi, the boss of the restaurant, said it all began with a simple mistake. She had asked a friend to post an ad for waiters but her friend mistook it as one for repairmen. When some laid-off workers came for the interview, Wang couldn't refuse them jobs.

In the beginning, she faced some difficulty in training them because they didn't have any restaurant work experience. But now they are all highly liked by customers as they are diligent and warmhearted.

Bills in demand

Banks in Guangdong province are in urgent need of 10-, 20- and 50-yuan notes, especially new bills, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

There's a huge demand for new bills during Spring Festival because of the practice of hongbao, resulting in the shortage.

Liu Weilin, deputy director of the Guangdong branch of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said they had asked the central bank to assign more notes of small denomination and new bills to the province to meet this seasonal demand.

Better carp

Farmers in Wan'an county, Jiangxi province, are making a handsome profit by raising red carp. A new variety with higher nutrition value is selling for 10 yuan per kg, much higher than the going rate of 5 yuan for ordinary carp. The red carp contains 21 to 27 percent protein, 3 percent higher than the ordinary ones.

"The annual national income from red carp is 40 million yuan, and each farmer can earn 3,000 yuan more every year," according to Le Ruiyuan, deputy head of the aquatic product bureau of Wan'an county.

GRAPEVINE

Citigroup JV

Citigroup Inc plans to set up a joint venture with Central China Securities Co to carry out investment banking in China, Caijing Magazine reported, citing an unnamed source.

Citigroup and the Henan-based brokerage signed an agreement in Zhengzhou on Jan 24, the report said.

Central China, with registered capital of 1 billion yuan, made a 1.96 billion yuan profit in 2006, a drop of 7.58 percent from the previous year, it said.

IPO buzz

China Railway Construction Corp and six other firms plan to launch their initial public offerings in Hong Kong after the Chinese New Year holidays, the South China Morning Post reported.

The newspaper cited HM Investment managing director Sammy Hsieh and unidentified market analysts as saying the seven companies will launch their IPOs after the lunar New Year holidays unless their plans are derailed by a serious downturn in investor sentiment.

They said the seven firms could raise up to $6 billion from their IPOs.

The report said China Railway Construction won local regulators' approval last Friday for its $1.5 billion IPO, which might be launched late next month.

Tesco Express

Tesco Plc plans to open its first Tesco Express store in Shanghai next month to enter China's convenience store market, the Financial Times reported, without revealing its source.

The biggest UK supermarket chain, which formed a joint venture with a local operator in China in 2004, already operates more than 50 hypermarkets and is planning to add smaller stores to its portfolio in China, according to the newspaper.

BIZ MOVES

NASDAQ appointment

Xia Guoxiong has been appointed general manager of the China region for the NASDAQ, responsible for exploration of potential clients and maintaining relationships with Chinese companies listed on the NASDAQ.

Xia has rich experience in the financial consulting industry. He is expected to strengthen the influence of the NASDAQ in China and bring more benefits to its Chinese clients.

In-Game CEO

Chen Nianduan (left), senior vice-president of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Co Ltd, has been appointed CEO of Shengyue In-Game Media, an exclusively Shanda-invested company.

Chen has more than 15 years of experience in marketing, advertising and brand management. Through this appointment, Shanda expects to take the initiative in the in-game advertising market, an emerging industry in China.

LOCAL

New town plan

A business service center will be included to utilize underground space as part of Beijing's new town development plan.

The surface plan for the new town has been finished, while the underground part is still under discussion, Xinhua reported, citing Huang Yan, head of the municipality's planning committee.

According to Huang, for the underground development, areas along subways will be particularly emphasized, with the Hong Kong experience used for reference.

(China Daily 01/29/2008 page15)