UBS AG has been authorized by China’s securities regulator to take a controlling stake in a local business, making the Swiss giant the first foreign bank allowed to do so under new rules.
Beijing in April relaxed the rules in the financial industry in a move to open up the economy.
“The China Securities Regulatory Commission [CSRC] recently approved UBS AG to increase the shareholding ratio of UBS Securities Co Ltd to 51 percent,” the regulator said in a statement late on Friday. “This is the first foreign-controlled securities company approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission after the implementation of the Measures for the Administration of Foreign-invested Securities Companies.”
USB, which currently owns about 25 percent of shares in the USB Securities Co Ltd joint venture, said in a statement that it would acquire stakes from China Guodian Capital Holdings Ltd (國電資本控股) and COFCO Group (中糧國際).
Other financial firms like Wall Street titan JPMorgan Chase & Co and Japan’s Nomura Holdings Ltd are still awaiting approval.
Laws limiting foreign ownership of local financial firms have long stopped global banks from independently operating in China and limited their growth.
However, Beijing last year said it would liberalize shareholding limits in the financial services industry, soon after US President Donald Trump visited.
Officials in April moved to make good on the pledge, immediately allowing foreign investors to take 51 percent stakes in securities firms and fund managers, with pledges set out to eventually allow full control.
Earlier this week, two European insurance giants, Allianz SE and Axa SA, received approval to expand their footprint in China. Allianz has been allowed to start a company fully funded by foreign capital, while Axa is to take full control of a joint venture. Trade tensions have increased between China and the US, which accuses Beijing of using unfair practices to get an advantage for its own firms and destroying American jobs.
Trump has placed tariffs on more than US$250 billion in Chinese imports so far this year and China responded with its own tariffs on US$110 billion in US goods.
However, Trump has threatened to target the remaining US$267 billion of Chinese imports as well, hitting Apple iPhones and laptops produced in China.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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