It is perhaps no surprise that the recent IPO of China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICBC), at US$25 billion (and possibly as much as US$29 billion, if additional options are taken into account) was the largest in the world, ever. After all, this is China, with the fourth biggest economy in the world, supporting the [...]

My recent post about high and low-end hotels in China noted a wave of development in the sector. The latest news adds several at both ends of the spectrum: • InterContinental Hotels and Resorts are adding seven new locations (two in Sichuan – Chengdu and in Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area- and others in Ningbo, Qingdao, Sanya, [...]

Heidrick & Struggles (H&S) have produced a new study on Corporate Governance in China in association with Fudan University in Shanghai. According to their press release, the study found that there is…room for growth in corporate governance in China – as I outlined in an post on Corporate (Non)Governance. So, no surprises there! The report, [...]

The other day I reported on IBM’s move of its procurement division to China. But that was obvioulsy not enough. Now it has announced a US$180 million joint venture invewstment fund with Lehman Brothers to buy Chinese companies. And IBM is not the only one in the news. Ford has announced that it is also [...]

The environment has long been a topic of debate in China, and some of the issues have been covered here recently- e.g. increased fines for polluters, energy, and water. While the general assumption is that the worst polluters are domestic firms that may escape punishment due to their local “guanxi” or because of the importance [...]

Legislators have been busy in China in recent months (with postal, monopoly and other laws) but, for the first time, they are on a sixth draft of a law (which was first tabled in 2002, and which had its fifth reading in August lat year) to protect state assets…and private property rights. Xinhua reports that: [...]

The Go Global policy for big Chinese corporates continues to have an impact. The Economist carries full-page ads for Lenovo and Huawei…and the Harvard Business Review has a new article on “Emerging Giants: Building World Class Companies in Developing Countries”. While not focusing exclusively on China, The Review highlights the following Chinese companies (but the [...]

The latest economic figures are out (as is the boss of the National Bureau of Statistics, Qiu Xiaohua – who was “removed” earlier this month). The FT reports: • Third quarter GDP growth: Up 10.4 percent (compared to 11.3% in the previous quarter). Growth in the 1st three quarters was 10.7 percent. • Fixed-asset investment [...]

First IBM sold its PC division to China (Lenovo), now it is reported (by the FT) to be buying from China – and will move its procurement HQ (and US$40 billion a year budget) there: “The company said John Paterson, its chief procurement officer, had relocated to Shenzhen, the Chinese special economic zone that borders [...]

It used to be “Made in China”. Now it is as likely to be “Patented in China”... Already the fourth largest economy, the FT reports that mainland China is now “the fourth largest source of [patent] filings”, after Japan, the US and South Korea – and ahead of Germany – according to a new report [...]