Australia yesterday eased foreign ownership restrictions on Chinese state-owned coal firm Yanzhou Coal Mining (兗州煤業) to help shore up the miner amid tough conditions in the sector.
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said he had agreed to relax a number of conditions placed on Yanzhou Coal as part of its A$3.5 billion (US$3.2 billion) takeover of Felix Resources in 2009, after a request from the Chinese company.
One of the key requirements was that Yanzhou reduce its stake in wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Yancoal to less than 70 percent by the end of this month and its share of Felix’s four coal mines to 50 percent, in a bid to alleviate foreign ownership concerns.
“Since those conditions were imposed, significant challenges have emerged for the Australian coal industry, including slowing demand, declining coal prices and a number of mine closures,” Hockey said.
“To date, Yanzhou has made progress in meeting those conditions by reducing its stake in Yancoal to 78 percent. It has sought my approval to have the conditions removed so it can maintain its existing stake,” he said.
Hockey added that the government remained “open” to Yanzhou returning to 100 percent ownership of Yancoal in the future.
“While foreign investment proposals are considered on a case-by-case basis, the government has no in-principle objection to 100 percent foreign ownership of Australian companies where it is not contrary to the national interest and is open to any such proposals from Yanzhou in the future,” he said.
Hockey said Yanzhou had committed to continuing to support Yancoal’s Australian operations and would “ensure Yancoal continues to operate so that it remains solvent” as long as it owned at least 51 percent of the subsidiary’s shares.
“In addition, Yanzhou will extend its existing loans to Yancoal if required, and will support Yancoal’s plans to expand the Moolarben open cut mine,” he added.
It is the second major coal mining decision by the new conservative Australian government in as many days, following Tuesday’s approval of a major export port expansion for India’s Adani group on the Great Barrier Reef coast.
It also comes amid criticism of Canberra for blocking the sale of GrainCorp to US agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland last month, prompting questions about Australia’s attitude to foreign investment.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained