Chinese companies at a glance

Five Star logistics bases

Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co Ltd plans to spend 300 million yuan to build three logistics centers to serve its stores and Best Buy outlets in East China, company officials said last week.

The centers will be located in Hangzhou of East China's Zhejiang Province, Nanjing and Suzhou of East China's Jiangsu Province and will each cover 80,000 square meters. Construction will start soon and the centers will be operational next year.

"The centers will cover distribution to Five Star stores in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces as well as future outlets Best Buy will open in these regions," said Wang Jianguo, chairman of Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co Ltd.

The Jiangsu-based home appliance retailer runs 140 stores in the country, mostly in eastern provinces. It plans to open another 45 outlets by the end of this year.

Huawei network deal

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has won a $700 million contract from China Mobile for network construction, doubling its share of the carrier's budget, the Shenzhen-based company said in a statement last week.

Huawei is the No 2 equipment provider for China Mobile's expansion, while ZTE Corp holds the biggest share of the carrier's purchase orders for third-generation telecommunications equipment. Their status shows that Chinese telecom firms are challenging foreign giants such as Ericsson and Motorola in China, industry insiders said.

Huawei's $700 million contract represents 23.6 percent of China Mobile's global system for mobile communications project purchases and was the second-largest share, behind Ericsson, according to Huawei.

Huawei, China's biggest private telecom equipment maker, will expand China Mobile's GSM coverage in 30 province-level regions with the deployment of thousands of GSM and radio products and services

Tieben may be revived

Nanjing Iron & Steel United, controlled by mainland conglomerate Fosun International, has won approval from top policymaker, the National Development and Reform Commission, to revive a troubled steelmaker, the Economic Observer reported.

The restructuring of Tieben Iron & Steel would still need the approval from the State Council, the paper said without giving details.

"In general, the State Council will endorse proposals approved by the National Development and Reform Commission," it said.

The construction of Tieben Steel's 8.4-million-ton steel project in Changzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, has been suspended since 2004 after the central government uncovered some irregularities.

Tieben Steel was found to have illegally occupied a large plot of land while local government officials had also breached rules by dividing a 10.59 billion yuan project into 22 smaller ones in a move to enable them to approve the projects at a local level.

Li-Ning sponsors Spain

Li-Ning last week unveiled its plans for international expansion and signed a cooperation agreement with the Spanish Olympic Committee (SOC) to outfit the Spanish team at next year's Games.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, honorary president of the International Olympic Committee, represented the SOC in the agreement with company founder and board chairman Li Ning. The Spanish Olympic Delegation is the second team to partner with Li-Ning for the 2008 Beijing Games. The Swedish Olympic Delegation entered a similar partnership earlier this year.

"We are still looking forward to more sponsorship cooperation with delegations from other countries," said Jason Guo, Li-Ning's chief operations officer.

The company, which opened its first European store in Spain in 2001, now has almost 30 stores on the continent. It will soon open stores in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The company earlier said it aims to be listed among the top five sports brands in the world by 2018.

TCL may list PC unit

Major domestic television and mobile phone maker TCL Corp may list its personal computer unit to raise much-needed capital, a domestic newspaper said recently.

Shenzhen-listed TCL hopes to swing to profitability this year, after which it would apply for a listing of the PC unit, the China Business News said, citing an unnamed TCL executive, who did not specify which stock exchange the company would target for a listing.

TCL is still reorganizing the share structure of its PC unit and may bring in overseas investors in preparation for a listing, the paper said.

TCL said in March that it was confident the company and its two Hong Kong-listed subsidiaries, TCL Communication Technology Holdings and TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings, will post a profit this year.

TCL Corp said in April that it had recorded a 1.01 billion yuan loss in 2006, related to TCL Multimedia's restructuring of its European television business.

Wahaha plans Danone suit

Wahaha Group, China's largest beverage maker, plans to sue its French venture partner Groupe Danone for up to 5 billion euros for illegal activities, the South China Morning Post reported, citing a spokesperson from the Chinese firm.

"We will sue Danone in reverse, asking for compensation of (up to) 5 billion euros. We already have authentic evidence of Danone's illegal activities and will pursue the other illegal activities according to the law," Wahaha said.

Danone has already filed cases against Wahaha in the US and Sweden for alleged illegal sales of products outside their joint venture, and Wahaha said it would respond to them.

The companies are sparring over the use of the Wahaha brand within their decade-old beverage venture, of which Danone owns 51 percent.

(China Daily 06/30/2007 page9)