Introduction About China

Where is China Located ? China, officially the People's Republic of China, is a sovereign state located in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. Read more

Thursday, January 10, 2013

News-Travel agiency - Trekking agency

News-Travel agiency - Trekking agency

Samsung Debuts New Powerful Smartphone Chip

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:57 PM PST

Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), the world's second-largest semiconductor maker, showed off a speedier and more powerful processor, seeking a bigger stake of the surging smartphone market. The company will begin selling a chip that has eight processors built into the same piece of silicon, Stephen Woo, president of Samsung's System LSI unit, said at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Four of the processors are designed to run fast when the device needs operating power and the rest are engineered to help conserve battery life. Enlarge image Samsung Debuts New Phone Chip as Mobile Processor Race Heats Up A Samsung Electronics Co. logo hangs above the company's booth during the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Samsung's Steel Discusses China Market, Strategy 2:38 Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- David Steel, executive vice president at Samsung Electronics Co., talks about Samsung's growth in China and business strategy. He speaks with Jon Erlichman at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg) Enlarge image Samsung Debuts New Phone Chip as Mobile Processor Race Heats Up The Samsung Electronics Co. logo is displayed on a computer screen at the company's flagship store in Seoul, South Korea. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg Samsung is following announcements this week by chipmakers such as Nvidia Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. of processors designed to make handheld devices more powerful. The Suwon, South Korea-based company is trying to build on its position as a supplier to Apple Inc. (AAPL) and its own handset division by winning orders from other phone makers with a full range of integrated components including processors, memory chips and screens, Woo said in an interview. "In the world, the only company that has logic, memory and display is Samsung Electronics," he said. Woo's appearance at the show is designed to showcase the company's capabilities outside of televisions and phones, where Samsung has market leadership, he said. The executive is also showing off flexible and curved display technologies designed to make phone screens viewable from different angles. Handset Business Samsung's new mobile processor, the Exynos 5 Octa, will build on its predecessor's success, Woo said. The previous version appeared in 53 million devices, he said, and was chosen by Google Inc. for its Chromebook notebook computer. While Woo's System LSI division is focused on the smartphone market -- where Samsung and Apple have more than half of industry sales -- the unit is independent of the company's handset business. "They use others' components," he said. "Even though we have very good components they choose to use others. It's their choice. They are looking after their interests and we are looking after ours." Woo declined to comment on other customer relationships. In the third quarter of last year, Qualcomm led the applications processor market with 42 percent revenue share followed by Samsung with 27 percent, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. Samsung, also the world's biggest supplier of ultra-thin organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, displays, probably saw rapid growth at its display business in the final three months of 2012, largely driven by sales of its own mobile devices, said David Choi, a Seoul-based analyst at SK Securities Co. Operating profit at Samsung's chip business was estimated at 1.52 trillion won ($1.43 billion) in the fourth quarter, down from 2.31 trillion won a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg News survey of five analysts. To contact the reporters on this story: Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net; Jungah Lee in Seoul at jlee1361@bloomberg.net

Hong Kong’s Central Rents to Extend Drop as Banks Cut Costs

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:55 PM PST

Hong Kong's Central district office rental, the most expensive globally, is set to extend its biggest decline since the global credit crisis, according to the world's two biggest realtors. Leasing costs in the district where Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc have offices will likely be little changed in 2013, Rhodri James, executive director for office services at CBRE Group Inc., (CBG) said. Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL) sees rents dropping "slightly" in the first half before picking up in the second, Ben Dickinson, head of Hong Kong markets, said. Enlarge image Hong Kong's Central Rents to Extend Decline as Banks Cut Costs Office buildings stand in the central business district of Hong Kong, China. Photographer: Jerome Favre/Bloomberg Enlarge image Hong Kong's Central Rents to Extend Decline as Banks Cut Costs Bank of America is close to agreeing to lease almost 150,000 square feet of prime office space in Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Center in Central, two people familiar with the transaction said last month. Photographer: Jerome Favre/Bloomberg Banks and brokerages, faced with slowing corporate finance activities, are giving up space in Central for locations in the city where rents can be two-thirds lower. Global financial services firms, including Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and UBS AG, have announced a total of more than 300,000 job cuts worldwide since the start of 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "It'll be a fairly slow market in 2013," CBRE's James said in a Dec. 28 interview. "We're going to keep seeing bad news in the banking sector and that's not going away in the first half. If they continue to cut back and hand back space, we could be in a similar situation in the second half." An index compiled by Colliers International that measures confidence in the office leasing markets among brokers in Asia stood at 57.1 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with 62.9 percent in the first quarter and 55.1 percent in the third quarter. A higher number indicates a more optimistic outlook. Falling Rents The average rent for prime offices in Central dropped 12 percent from a year earlier to about HK$98.80 ($12.75) a square foot a month at the end of the third quarter, according to Seattle-based Colliers. That was the biggest drop since 2008. With financial services companies migrating their back offices -- and sometimes the entire operations -- away from Central, almost all other major office districts in Hong Kong posted gains in rental rates and drops in vacancies last year. Central's grade-A vacancy rate rose to 5.5 percent in the third quarter from 3.5 percent a year earlier, according to Colliers. Meanwhile, in Island East, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Sheung Wan, all within a 15-minute subway ride from Central, vacancies dropped to below 3 percent. In Kowloon East, an industrial and logistics area that is evolving into a back-office hub for banks, vacancies dropped to 9.6 percent from 12.9 percent. "The trend will continue and that won't just be for next year," said Dickinson of Jones Lang LaSalle, the world's second-largest commercial real estate brokerage, in a Jan. 8 interview. "We're increasingly seeing banks looking very seriously at moving front-office operations to these locations. Central has such a rental premium against the other sub- districts and Hong Kong is an easy place to get around." Island East JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc are among banks that have relocated parts of their operations to Island East, where Hong Kong-listed Swire Properties Ltd. (1972) plans to redevelop some buildings to add to its office portfolio of 10.5 million square feet. For Central, even with rising vacancy, office occupancy costs still topped CBRE's global survey for the second half of 2012, published in December. At an annual cost of $246.30 per square foot, it was 12 percent higher than the $219.81 of second-placed West End of London. Tokyo was third at $197.27, followed by Beijing's central business district at $184.95. "There'll be another round of downward pressure, but rents are not going to tank," said CBRE's James. "There's still a bit of vacancy in Central which is proving not easy to lease." Lowering Rents Some Central landlords have over the past year lowered their asking rents by as much as 30 percent to attract tenants, Simon Smith, Hong Kong-based head of research at Savills Plc (SVS), said in an interview yesterday. Bank of America is close to agreeing to lease almost 150,000 square feet of prime office space in Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Center in Central, two people familiar with the transaction said last month. The deal, brokered by CBRE, is the biggest by space in the district since at least 2003. The amount of funds raised in IPOs in Hong Kong in 2012 fell to $7.9 billion, the lowest since 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Mainland Companies Still, support for the office market this year could come from the continuing influx of mainland Chinese financial services companies looking to Hong Kong as a gateway to international expansion, said Savills's Smith, who is predicting rents in the city to rise 10 percent in 2013. "The international investment banks are less brand- conscious and more cost-conscious than people think," he said. "But these mainland businesses want good quality premises and at the moment they're finding it tough to get them." Prime office rents in Tsim Sha Tsui, a hub for trading firms and retail companies with a vacancy rate below 1 percent at the end of the third quarter, rose 9.3 percent to HK$49 a square foot per month during the year, while the biggest increase among all major office district came from Kowloon East, which gained 11 percent to HK$33 per square foot per month. New prime office supply set for Hong Kong over the next nine years won't be enough to meet half of the forecast demand for space, according to a study by CBRE published in October. To contact the reporter on this story: Kelvin Wong in Hong Kong at kwong40@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net

ZTE to Double Share on Apple Turf After Passing IPhone in China, tripadvisor.com

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:54 PM PST

ZTE Corp. (000063), which eclipsed Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s handset shipments in China last year, plans to double its share in the iPhone-maker's home market by adding devices specifically tailored for individual U.S. wireless operators. The company intends to grab as much as 10 percent of the U.S. handset market by 2015, Cheng Lixin, head of ZTE's operations in the country, said in an interview yesterday at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. That would also boost the Shenzhen, China-based company's U.S. sales ranking to fourth from fifth, he said. ZTE plans to win backing from U.S. carriers by drawing on its experience making communications equipment to design phones that use operators' networks more efficiently, Cheng said. That contrasts Apple's one-size-fits-all approach, which left AT&T Inc. (T) struggling to cope with a flood of data following the introduction on the iPhone, he said. "Apple has a completely different business model than we do," he said. The Chinese phone-maker will also work with carriers to study consumer behavior and needs to improve and customize phone designs, he said. The phone-maker surpassed Apple's shipments in China in the second quarter of last year. In 2011, it more than quadrupled smartphone shipments in the country to 15 million. Apple's share of the smartphone market in China declined two spots to sixth in the third quarter, with less than 10 percent, according to IDC. ZTE ranked fourth. Low-End Phones ZTE won sales in China by focusing on low-end smartphones, such as the Blade, which cost 1,000 yuan ($161) or less. The cheapest iPhone on Apple's China website, an 8 gigabyte iPhone 4, costs 3,088 yuan. The iPhone 5 begins at 5,288 yuan. ZTE is developing more advanced and expensive models as it tries to lure consumers from Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) in the U.S. At the Las Vegas show, it unveiled its new flagship handset, the Grand S, which is for fourth generation Long Term Evolution networks. It has a 5-inch screen and runs Google Inc.'s Android Jelly Bean system, enabled by Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM)'s Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. Still, the company is struggling to convince analysts it can break into the high-end segment. It's rated hold or sell by 23 analysts, with 11 saying buy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The phone-maker also fell 46 percent last year in Hong Kong trading, compared to a 23 percent rise in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. "I find ZTE's ambitions in the high end and in the U.S. fairly unrealistic," said Pierre Ferragu, a London-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. "High-end smartphone users, especially in the U.S., are highly brand-conscious and I don't believe ZTE has made any progress on that front." The company would be better served focusing on the low-end unbranded segment, where its good cost base provides a competitive edge, said Ferragu, who rates ZTE underperform. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Tim Culpan in Taipei at tculpan1@bloomberg.net; Edmond Lococo in Beijing at elococo@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net

Bats Says System Errors Caused Pricing Problems Over 4 Years, yalaadventure.com

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:51 PM PST

Bats Global Markets Inc., the third- largest U.S. stock exchange operator, said its computers allowed trades that violated rules intended to ensure all investors get the best prices for equities over a period of four years. Machines that match orders for two Bats equity exchanges and an options venue allowed some trades to occur at prices inferior to the best available bid or offer and enabled others to violate rules for short sales, or bearish bets, the company said in a notice published on its website yesterday. Customers lost $420,360, because of rule violations, Randy Williams, a Bats spokesman, said by e-mail. The issue allowed technical infringement of rules in the U.S., where trading is fragmented across 13 exchanges and dozens of other venues, aimed at preserving fairness. While losses to any single user would have been close to undetectable and the vast majority of Bats trades executed correctly, the disclosure comes after a year in which breakdowns on American exchanges sowed concern the nation's electronic equity infrastructure is too complex to manage. SEC Scrutiny "Once again, we see there's a problem with electronic systems, this time an exchange system," Larry Harris, a finance and business economics professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and former chief economist at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said in a phone interview. "Bats will get a lot of scrutiny from the SEC at a time when nobody wants that kind of attention. That said, it's important to recognize that Bats itself identified the problem and brought it to public attention and to the attention of regulators." SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment in an email. Bats's computers inadvertently permitted trades counter to specific rules. One regulation involves the best bid and offer, a central concept aimed at ensuring that even as exchanges proliferate, investors who want to buy and sell shares can be confident they are getting the best prices. The short-sale circuit breaker, implemented in 2011, was intended to prevent investors from driving down share prices when a stock had already fallen 10 percent from the previous day's closing level. The curb limits the price of short sales relative to the national best bid. Price-Sliding Bats said some mistakes occurred with so-called price- sliding orders that re-price trade requests based on the movement of the national best bid or offer, under specific circumstances involving other orders. Additional infractions took place when orders pegged or tied to the national best bid or offer traded through that level or executed at a price not permitted under the short-sale rule because of the actions of unrelated other orders. The trades at inferior prices, called trade-throughs because they trade through or ignore the best available bid or offer, happened 433,000 times, an average of 410 a day from October 2008 to January 2013 on the main Bats stock exchange, the company said. Almost 8,000 similar incidents occurred on the second Bats stock exchange and 617 on its options market, the firm said. Short-selling (SPX) violations involved more than 3,600 incidents across its equity venues, Bats said. Regulatory Tools "It's a miniscule amount of trades but I don't think the regulators have the tools to keep up with the technology that's out there and the sheer number of quotes and trades going on," Joseph Saluzzi, partner and co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC in Chatham, New Jersey, said in a phone interview. "Is this happening at other exchanges? Can I trust regulators to find out? I don't know." The Bats announcement comes amid a securities industry debate about benefits afforded to exchanges in their role as self-regulatory organizations. According to its rules, Bats's aggregate liability to its customers is limited to $500,000 per calendar month when the exchange makes a mistake in the normal course of business. Participants may only seek compensation "for losses resulting directly from the malfunction of the exchange's physical equipment, devices and/or programming or the negligent acts or omissions of its employees," according to a statement from the company's website. "We will explore with the SEC the extent to which we can provide compensation retroactively regarding this issue," Williams said by e-mail. Bats IPO The pricing issues at Bats follow the company's withdrawal of its own initial public offering after a technology glitch in March and the Nasdaq Stock Market's botched IPO of Facebook Inc. in May, events that undercut investor confidence that exchanges are in command of their technology systems. Bats, whose name stands for Better Alternative Trading System, rose to prominence in tandem with the proliferation of electronic firms that now dominate the buying and selling of equities in the U.S. The six-year-old equity exchange canceled its IPO on March 23 after errors on its own computer systems kept its stock from trading. Nasdaq mishandled Facebook's (FB) IPO on May 18 when an auction to set the first traded price for the shares failed. The exchange's systems were overwhelmed by order updates and cancellations before the stock began trading, causing the market operator to make technology changes that prevented confirmations of orders and trades from being disseminated for hours, and leading to confusion among investors, brokers and market makers. Facebook Plan Nasdaq OMX plans to reimburse its members up to $62 million for losses related to the Facebook IPO, the New York-based company said July 20. The cap on Nasdaq Stock Market's liability stemming from specific technology errors and malfunctions it causes is $3 million, according to the exchange's rules, and the higher payout is voluntary. Exchanges have immunity from losses related to activity they undertake as part of their duties as SEC-registered self-regulatory organizations. Legislation that created the SEC in 1934 also deemed the main venues self-regulatory organizations that oversee their member firms and trading. Critics say the Facebook mishap shows how changes in the structure of markets have made old regulations obsolete. "Bats is a self-regulatory organization and they're the first line of defense," said Saluzzi of Themis. "But it's for the SEC to come in and say maybe some of these order types shouldn't be approved because the market is too complex." To contact the reporters on this story: Nina Mehta in New York at nmehta24@bloomberg.net; Eleni Himaras in Hong Kong at ehimaras@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net

Bats Says System Errors Caused Pricing Problems Over 4 Years, acetravels.com

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:50 PM PST

Bats Global Markets Inc., the third- largest U.S. stock exchange operator, said its computers allowed trades that violated rules intended to ensure all investors get the best prices for equities over a period of four years. Machines that match orders for two Bats equity exchanges and an options venue allowed some trades to occur at prices inferior to the best available bid or offer and enabled others to violate rules for short sales, or bearish bets, the company said in a notice published on its website yesterday. Customers lost $420,360, because of rule violations, Randy Williams, a Bats spokesman, said by e-mail. The issue allowed technical infringement of rules in the U.S., where trading is fragmented across 13 exchanges and dozens of other venues, aimed at preserving fairness. While losses to any single user would have been close to undetectable and the vast majority of Bats trades executed correctly, the disclosure comes after a year in which breakdowns on American exchanges sowed concern the nation's electronic equity infrastructure is too complex to manage. SEC Scrutiny "Once again, we see there's a problem with electronic systems, this time an exchange system," Larry Harris, a finance and business economics professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and former chief economist at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said in a phone interview. "Bats will get a lot of scrutiny from the SEC at a time when nobody wants that kind of attention. That said, it's important to recognize that Bats itself identified the problem and brought it to public attention and to the attention of regulators." SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment in an email. Bats's computers inadvertently permitted trades counter to specific rules. One regulation involves the best bid and offer, a central concept aimed at ensuring that even as exchanges proliferate, investors who want to buy and sell shares can be confident they are getting the best prices. The short-sale circuit breaker, implemented in 2011, was intended to prevent investors from driving down share prices when a stock had already fallen 10 percent from the previous day's closing level. The curb limits the price of short sales relative to the national best bid. Price-Sliding Bats said some mistakes occurred with so-called price- sliding orders that re-price trade requests based on the movement of the national best bid or offer, under specific circumstances involving other orders. Additional infractions took place when orders pegged or tied to the national best bid or offer traded through that level or executed at a price not permitted under the short-sale rule because of the actions of unrelated other orders. The trades at inferior prices, called trade-throughs because they trade through or ignore the best available bid or offer, happened 433,000 times, an average of 410 a day from October 2008 to January 2013 on the main Bats stock exchange, the company said. Almost 8,000 similar incidents occurred on the second Bats stock exchange and 617 on its options market, the firm said. Short-selling (SPX) violations involved more than 3,600 incidents across its equity venues, Bats said. Regulatory Tools "It's a miniscule amount of trades but I don't think the regulators have the tools to keep up with the technology that's out there and the sheer number of quotes and trades going on," Joseph Saluzzi, partner and co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC in Chatham, New Jersey, said in a phone interview. "Is this happening at other exchanges? Can I trust regulators to find out? I don't know." The Bats announcement comes amid a securities industry debate about benefits afforded to exchanges in their role as self-regulatory organizations. According to its rules, Bats's aggregate liability to its customers is limited to $500,000 per calendar month when the exchange makes a mistake in the normal course of business. Participants may only seek compensation "for losses resulting directly from the malfunction of the exchange's physical equipment, devices and/or programming or the negligent acts or omissions of its employees," according to a statement from the company's website. "We will explore with the SEC the extent to which we can provide compensation retroactively regarding this issue," Williams said by e-mail. Bats IPO The pricing issues at Bats follow the company's withdrawal of its own initial public offering after a technology glitch in March and the Nasdaq Stock Market's botched IPO of Facebook Inc. in May, events that undercut investor confidence that exchanges are in command of their technology systems. Bats, whose name stands for Better Alternative Trading System, rose to prominence in tandem with the proliferation of electronic firms that now dominate the buying and selling of equities in the U.S. The six-year-old equity exchange canceled its IPO on March 23 after errors on its own computer systems kept its stock from trading. Nasdaq mishandled Facebook's (FB) IPO on May 18 when an auction to set the first traded price for the shares failed. The exchange's systems were overwhelmed by order updates and cancellations before the stock began trading, causing the market operator to make technology changes that prevented confirmations of orders and trades from being disseminated for hours, and leading to confusion among investors, brokers and market makers. Facebook Plan Nasdaq OMX plans to reimburse its members up to $62 million for losses related to the Facebook IPO, the New York-based company said July 20. The cap on Nasdaq Stock Market's liability stemming from specific technology errors and malfunctions it causes is $3 million, according to the exchange's rules, and the higher payout is voluntary. Exchanges have immunity from losses related to activity they undertake as part of their duties as SEC-registered self-regulatory organizations. Legislation that created the SEC in 1934 also deemed the main venues self-regulatory organizations that oversee their member firms and trading. Critics say the Facebook mishap shows how changes in the structure of markets have made old regulations obsolete. "Bats is a self-regulatory organization and they're the first line of defense," said Saluzzi of Themis. "But it's for the SEC to come in and say maybe some of these order types shouldn't be approved because the market is too complex." To contact the reporters on this story: Nina Mehta in New York at nmehta24@bloomberg.net; Eleni Himaras in Hong Kong at ehimaras@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net

Temasek Group Pares Stake in Shin Through $687 Million Sale, acetravels.com

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:48 PM PST

Temasek Holdings Pte and its partners sold 20.9 billion baht ($687 million) of Shin Corp. (INTUCH) shares, paring its stake in the company that controls the biggest Thai mobile-phone operator. Singapore's state-owned investment company and its partners in Cedar Holdings Ltd. sold 330 million Shin shares at 63.25 baht each, Shin said in a statement. That was a 5.6 percent discount to the close yesterday, and cuts the group's stake to about 13.3 percent from 23.6 percent, according to Shin. Enlarge image Temasek Group Pares Stake in Shin Through $687 Million Sale A Temasek Holdings Pte employee walks past the company's signage in their office in Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg "It has always been the strategy of Temasek to pare down its investments in telecommunications companies across the region," said Thapana Phanich, an analyst with Deutsche Bank AG in Bangkok. "I expect them to sell another stake in Shin Corp. However, they might want to maintain a slim majority." Temasek, which managed S$198 billion ($161 billion) of assets as of March 2012, said in June it's seeking investment opportunities as the turmoil in Europe may result in a market slump rivaling the 2008 global financial crisis. The company sold shares of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (ST) last year, the biggest holding in its portfolio. The state-owned investment company said in an e-mailed statement that Cedar is an associate and it's not in a position to comment on the offer as a minority holder. Shares of Shin fell 3.7 percent in Bangkok, poised for their biggest drop since August 27. The benchmark SET Index rose 0.1 percent. Thai NVDR About 80 percent of the shares were sold to Thai NVDR Co., and the rest to Thai investors, Shin said. Thai NVDR was established by the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 2000 to boost investment in Thai stocks, according to the bourse's website. Investors in NVDRs don't have voting rights, though receive the same financial benefits as holders of a company's ordinary shares. The use of NVDRs allows Thai companies and overseas investors to circumvent Thailand's foreign ownership restrictions. A Temasek-led group bought Shin in 2006 from the family of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was Thailand's prime minister at the time, and later raised its stake in the company to more than 96 percent. Temasek now owns 42 percent of Shin, and Cedar has a 13 percent stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Temasek bought Shin through Aspen, a wholly-owned unit, and Cedar, in which it had a 49 percent stake, Temasek said at the time of the original purchase. The partners in Cedar were Siam Commercial Bank Pcl (SCB) and Kularb Kaew Co., according to Temasek. Aspen Queried Kularb Kaew is 28 percent owned by Temasek unit Cypress Holdings and Thai investors own the remainder, the Nation newspaper reported in 2006, citing an unidentified official at Thailand's commerce ministry. Cypress has 90 percent of the voting rights in Kularb Kaew, with Thai shareholders limited to 10 percent, the Nation said. Temasek declined to comment on voting rights at the time. Shin said it asked Temasek's Aspen whether it also plans to sell shares. "Aspen has informed the company that it has no immediate plan to sell its shares in the company and remains confident in the business and management of the company," Somprasong Boonyachai, a Shin director, said in the exchange statement. Shin gets almost all of its earnings from its 40 percent stake in Advanced Info Service Pcl (ADVANC), Thailand's biggest mobile- phone company. Shin also owns 41 percent of Thaicom Pcl (THCOM), the nation's satellite operator, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The stake sale by Temasek's group was first reported by FinanceAsia. The sale was managed by Credit Suisse Group AG and Morgan Stanley, along with Bualuang Securities Pcl and Siam Commercial Bank. To contact the reporters on this story: Joyce Koh in Singapore at jkoh38@bloomberg.net; Klaus Wille in Singapore at kwille@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at lagerkranser@bloomberg.net; Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net

Asian Stocks Rise on China Exports Data; Mazda Climbs

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:45 PM PST

Asian stocks climbed, with the regional benchmark index headed for its highest close in 17 months, as China's exports data topped economists' forecasts and Japanese carmakers rallied on a weaker yen. China Cosco Holdings Co., China's biggest shipping company, jumped 8.2 percent in Hong Kong. Mazda Motor Corp. (7261) led automakers higher, climbing 9 percent in Tokyo as Bank of America Corp. recommended investors buy the shares. Korea Electric Power Corp., which supplies all of South Korea's electricity, rose 3.6 percent in Seoul after raising tariffs. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) rallied 0.9 percent to 132.25 as of 1:46 p.m. Tokyo time, on track for its highest close since August 2011. The benchmark gauge capped seven straight weeks of gains last week as the U.S. Congress approved a budget deal and Japanese shares rallied on expectations the nation's new leadership would call for more stimulus. "China's export data is boosting investor sentiment," said Grace Tam, Hong Kong-based global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management Ltd., which oversees about $1.3 trillion globally. "Imports also improved, showing that domestic demand is picking up." The Nikkei 225 Stock Average (NKY) increased 0.9 percent, advancing for a second day. The gauge climbed 22 percent through yesterday from Nov. 14 when Japanese elections were announced, driving the measure into a bull market. South Korea's Kospi Index rose 0.6 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index increased 0.9 percent. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.3 percent. China Exports Stocks extended gains after China's exports rose 14.1 percent in December from a year earlier, while imports increased 6 percent, the customs office said today. The pickup in overseas shipments beat the 5 percent median estimate of 40 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey and a 2.9 percent increase the previous month. China Cosco jumped 8.2 percent to HK$4.77 in Hong Kong. China Shipping Container Lines Co. (2866), the nation's second-largest carrier of sea-cargo boxes, advanced 6.7 percent to HK$2.72. Orient Overseas International Ltd., operator of Hong Kong's biggest container line, rose 2.5 percent to HK$55.50. Chinese solar makers extended gains after the government said it aims to more than double solar capacity. China Solar Energy Holdings Ltd. surged 25 percent 4.5 Hong Kong cents. GCL- Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. (3800), a maker of wafers used in solar panels, gained 7.8 percent to HK$2.20. Futures on the S&P 500 climbed 0.3 percent today. The benchmark gauge advanced 0.3 percent yesterday after Alcoa Inc. reported better-than-estimated sales. Yen Weakens Japanese exporters climbed as the yen neared a 2 1/2-year low after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa to double the inflation target to 2 percent. A weaker currency boosts the value of overseas earnings of companies when repatriated. Abe yesterday talked with Shirakawa at a meeting of Japan's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, which has been revived following its abolition by the previous government. "The government's economic policy can prompt a sustained improvement in investor sentiment by weakening the yen before the recovery in the U.S. economy becomes definite," said Naoki Kamiyama, equity strategist at Bank of America Corp. in Tokyo. "It's a way to engineer an economic recovery." Mazda, which generates more than 70 percent of its sales outside of Japan, jumped 9 percent to 193 yen. BofA raised its recommendation for the carmaker to buy from neutral and raised its price estimate for the shares by 73 percent to 225 yen. DRB-Hicom, Kepco Honda Motor Co. (7267), which generates around 80 percent of its revenue overseas, climbed 2.6 percent to 3,335 yen. Sony Corp., Japan's biggest exporter of consumer electronics, gained 3.4 percent to 968 yen. Malaysian automaker DRB-Hicom Bhd. rose 1.9 percent to 2.68 ringgit in Kuala Lumpur. Billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, the company's largest shareholder, may make an offer to take DRB private at 3.50 ringgit to 4 ringgit per share, the Business Times reported, citing unidentified people it said were working on the plan. DRB spokesman Sulaiman Yahya said by phone the company is not aware of such a plan. Korea Electric, the state-controlled monopoly utility also known as Kepco, climbed 3.6 percent to 32,800 won in Seoul. South Korea will raise electricity prices by an average 4 percent starting next week, the second increase in five months, the Knowledge Economy Ministry said yesterday. In Australia, Alumina Ltd. (AWC), a supplier of the material used to make aluminum, rose 3.4 percent to A$1.06 for a fourth day of gains. Credit Suisse Group AG upgraded its rating to outperform from neutral with a new price estimate of A$1.25 per share. To contact the reporters on this story: Sarah Jones in London at sjones35@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net; John McCluskey at j.mccluskey@bloomberg.net
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