Biz scene

BIZ MOVES

New CFO

China Education Alliance Inc, a leading distributor of educational resources, has announced the appointment of Susan Liu as its chief financial officer.

Liu has served as chief financial officer of OTC listed companies Entech Environmental Technologies Inc and Hendrx Corp since July 2007.

Prior to that, she was finance manager of the Greater China Region for Hyclone Biochemical China.

ENet appointment

ENet China Inc has announced the appointment of Wang Yingxue as CEO while its president Gao Zailang will keep his position. Wang will also maintain his previous post as CEO of China Internet Weekly.

Before joining eNet, Wang used to work for a portal in Southwest China.

GRAPEVINE

Share sale

United Overseas Bank Ltd is selling $38.6 million worth of shares in China's biggest pharmaceutical research outsourcing company, Wuxi PharmaTech Inc, Reuters reported yesterday, citing an unnamed source.

UOB is selling 2.1 million shares of Wuxi at $18.4 each, the report said. The offering price represents a 4.9 percent discount on the firm's Monday closing price at $19.35. Credit Suisse is the arranger of the share sale.

United Overseas Bank has a 12.9 percent stake in Wuxi, according to a regulatory filing in February.

HK offering

Chongqing Machinery & Electric Co, the largest diversified industrial company in Southwest China, has raised HK$1.3 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering, Bloomberg reported.

The producer of machinery including vehicle parts and power equipment sold 1 billion new shares, a 27.3 percent stake, at HK$1.3 each, the report said, citing unidentified sources.

The final price, at the low end of a HK$1.3-1.7 offering price range, values the company at about nine times this year's profit.

BIZ UNUSUAL

Design for dolls

Now, fashion consultants for dolls. A studio in Shanghai is giving professional advice to little girls for their dolls with a fleet of hair stylists and fashion designers, some of whom have graduated from fashion institutes overseas.

While the designers come up with new dress ideas and make them, the hairdo is taken care of by the stylists. The studio also involves the doll owners to participate in the process to help them learn a bit about fashion designing.

Going pink

In a bid to attract women, a "pink" restaurant has opened in Shanghai. Decorated with pink wallpaper, the restaurant provides customers with pink dishware. Customers can also rent pink dresses and accessories at the restaurant.

Xiao Li, owner of the restaurant, said it has caught on with girls and men who want to impress their girlfriends.

Funky restaurant

On the busiest commercial street in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, is a funky restaurant famous for closetools, attracting curious customers in hordes.

The restaurant is decorated with tiles normally used in restrooms. Diners are seated on colorful closestool-shaped seats and served in bathtub-shaped dishes and bowls shaped after closetools. Most customers in this restaurant are in their 20s.

MARKET

Rights offer

ITC Properties Group Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed builder, plans to raise HK$899.2 million in a rights offer, and use the majority of the money to buy back its convertible bonds maturing in 2010 and 2011.

The company will use about HK$544.1 million from the rights offer to buy back the "out-of-the-money" bonds at the request of some bondholders, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

ITC Properties will offer three rights shares at 7 Hong Kong cents each, as many as 12.85 billion new shares, for every share now held, the statement said.

Wind farm

Hong Kong Energy (Holdings) Ltd, an alternative energy producer, has received regulatory approval to establish a wind farm in Inner Mongolia with a total investment of 480.5 million yuan.

Hong Kong Energy, in the process of changing its name from J.I.C. Technology Co, plans to fund the project in Ulanqab League with its own cash and/or bank borrowings, according to its statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The company also said it will buy 33 sets of wind turbines and turbine towers for the project from Sinovel Windtec Co and CNR Jinan Locomotive & Rolling Stock Plant for 349.8 million yuan.

LOCAL

Jiangsu bankcards

The total amount of bankcards has reached 120 million in Jiangsu province, according to the Nanjing branch of the People's Bank of China. Per capita bankcard in Jiangsu has reached 1.57, with bankcard transactions value reaching 224.8 billion yuan last year.

Apple center

China's first apple experiment center has been set up in Baishui county, Shaanxi province.

Based in Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, the center is divided into several parts, including selection and cultivation of new species, resource collection and storage, new species demonstration and new technology development, covering an area of 7.5 hectares.

Apple planting is one of the six core industries in Shaanxi province. By the end of 2007, there were 640,000 hectares of apple plantation, ranking the province first in the country.

Wastewater treatment

Jiangxi provincial government has signed "letters of responsibility" with county- and town-level government and related departments which regulate that before July 2010, new wastewater treatment facilities in all counties and towns should be completed and put into use, and wastewater treatment rate should reach 70 percent.

In the next two years, wastewater treatment facilities will be constructed in 78 counties and towns with a total investment of 4.55 billion yuan.

Substandard apparel

In a recent review of children's apparel, toys and stationery, the Guangzhou quality inspection bureau found about 30 percent of children's apparel sold in the market to be substandard.

The main problem of these clothes is said to be the use of illegal dyes and excessive formaldehyde.

In addition, the colorfastness and fiber content of these clothes also do not meet the standards in China.

(China Daily 06/11/2008 page15)