Alibaba Group announces new arm to handle finance

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's biggest e-commerce company, is setting up a new company to handle payments, micro-finance, guarantees and insurance in the latest of a series of structural changes at the company over the past two years. Lucy Peng, the chief executive officer of Alipay.com Co Ltd, Alibaba's online payment arm, will act as CEO of the new company. It's not known what part Alipay and Aliloan, its micro-lending arms, will play. In January, Alibaba restructured its seven business groups into 25 business units.

'No shortfall' in pensions for enterprise retirees

A top social security official said on Thursday there is no shortfall in China's pension pot for enterprise retirees. "I can assure you responsibly that there is no gap in the pension fund for enterprise retirees. The accumulated balance exceeded 2.3 trillion yuan ($370 billion) last year," said Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security. Yin said the national pension fund had 1.9 trillion yuan in its accounts by the end of last year, when spending amounted to 1.5 trillion yuan, creating a balance of 400 billion yuan.

Stricter rules to further polarize homebuilders

Stricter implementation of existing property rules will further polarize homebuilders, Fitch Ratings said in a report. The tightened rules will lower homebuilders' margins slightly by restricting their ability to pass on rising input costs to homebuyers. The new rules will have no impact on homebuilders' ratings as Fitch factored in the likely lower margins for homebuilders in its assessment. The new regulations, however, will disproportionately affect smaller players with lower margins, with projects targeting speculative buyers or those with high concentration in cities, which are targeted for stricter policy implementation.

MGPA acquires office building in Shanghai

MGPA, a private equity real estate investment advisory company managing assets in Europe and Asia, has acquired a newly completed Grade A office building, j-Tower, in Shanghai for 263.5 million yuan ($42.4 million). The deal was concluded by MGPA Asia Fund III, which focuses on real estate investments in the Asia-Pacific region, and features equity commitments of $3.9 billion. Its portfolio in China includes a 50 percent interest in Galleria Chengdu, a high quality retail mall in that city.

Iron ore prices to drop 50% in 18 months: Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto Plc, the world's third-largest miner by market capitalization, expects iron ore prices to drop 50 percent in the next 18 months, based on excess capacity and lower demand in China. Rio Tinto's chief economist Vivek Tulpule forecast a steady decline in iron ore prices to just above $100 a metric ton by September 2014, according to a report in the Herald Sun. "Rio Tinto's forecast is based on future iron ore demand from China, a country that consumes half of the global iron ore resources," said Wang Guoqing, deputy director at the Lange Steel Information Research Center.

Exchange to launch individual stock options

The Shanghai Stock Exchange will launch individual stock options this year, its chairman, Gui Minjie, told a press conference during the annual session of China's top political advisory body. Gui said the exchange is planning to launch equity options for blue-chip stocks this year, starting with simulated deals before proceeding to real trading, the Securities Times reported on Thursday. Analysts said the move is aimed at providing more hedging tools for institutional investors, and to increase trading volumes on China's stock market.

China's European patent filings on the rise: Report

Chinese companies are the main driving force behind the increasing number of patent filings in the European Patent Office, the People's Daily reported on Thursday. The office received 258,000 patent filings from all over the world in 2012, a 5.2 percent increase year-on-year and a new record. Patent filings from Chinese companies accounted for 7.3 percent among the top five countries, up 11.1 percent year-on-year, making it the fastest-growing country in terms of filings.

PICC to launch Shanghai IPO 'at proper time'

People's Insurance Company (Group) of China, one of the country's largest insurance groups, will float shares in Shanghai at an appropriate time, the company said in a statement on Thursday. "With the recovery of China's economy, the A-share market will be back to a growth track again, and we will seek an appropriate opportunity to launch an IPO in Shanghai," said Wu Yan, the chairman. PICC went public in Hong Kong on Dec 7 to raise about HK$24 billion ($3.09 billion), the biggest IPO in the city last year.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily 03/08/2013 page14)