A plan under which big Chinese companies led by Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) would invest US$11.7 billion in the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier was yesterday cast into confusion just a day after it was announced.
China United Network Communications Ltd (中國聯合網絡通信), the Shanghai-listed arm of China Unicom Ltd (中國聯通), was to receive an infusion under a deal announced on Wednesday, part of the Chinese government’s push to overhaul inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by luring in private capital.
The investors were to include Internet titans like Tencent, Alibaba, JD.com Inc (京東), taxi-hailing service Didi Chuxing (滴滴出行) and several other firms.
However, confusion subsequently emerged over which companies would be involved, with China United Network Communications withdrawing a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange about the agreement just hours after submitting it on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, plans to lift suspensions on China Unicom-related shares were reversed.
“There’s been confusion right to the very last moment — they shouldn’t be rushing ahead to make the announcements,” Francis Lun (藺常念), chief executive officer of Hong Kong brokerage Geo Securities Ltd (智易東方證券) told Bloomberg News. “It shows their incompetency. The approval process has to be called into question when they deliver misleading messages like this.”
The fiasco could raise questions over China’s plans to reform SOEs while waging a parallel campaign to crack down on runaway credit in the private sector.
China’s ballooning debt on Tuesday prompted a warning by the IMF that the country was on a “dangerous trajectory.”
Unicom Group was among six SOEs chosen by Beijing last year for a pilot program to funnel private capital into state firms, which has seen Unicom-related shares soar this year.
Unicom’s net debt has risen by 20 percent in the past five years to 150 billion yuan (US$22 billion), according to Bloomberg, as it spent on mobile network upgrades and plans an expensive 5G rollout.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last