News » Society » London seeks lead role as China's currency goes global

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• London seeks lead role as China's currency goes global
• 'Rude' cellist sacked in Beijing
• Why your child should invest in Mexican beer bottlers and other risky funds
• CITY FOCUS: Marc Bolland's moves to wake up M&S
• Madeira magic leaves former Ryder Cup star Wilson hoping life's a piece of cake
• After years of indecision and a drain of expertise, how Britain's nuclear future (and YOUR money) could end up in the hands of the Chinese
• Ray J treated for 'exhaustion and jet lag' as he is hospitalised morning after Billboard Awards
• Nigeria holds 45 Chinese traders
• Stop... hover time: Chinese technicians create utterly unconvincing photoshopped propaganda image showing officials floating in midair
• Dancing with wolves: The 10-year-old girl who kisses, cuddles and feeds predatory beasts like they are domestic puppy dogs
• Advertising spending sees sluggish growth
• Nissan Says It Is Near Approval to Build Cars in China
• Macau Labor Shortage Seen as Hurdle for Casino Expansion
• A Beijing Ticket to Hollywood
• After Yahoo deal, challenges abound for Alibaba
• Have You Heard… After Yahoo deal, challenges abound for
• Ray J treated for 'exhaustion and jet lag' as he is hospitalised morning after Billboard Awards
• Google buys Motorola for $12.5 billion - paving the way for even MORE Google-branded gadgets
• FTSE CLOSE: Hopes for EU 'growth summit' lift investor mood; inflation falls to 3%
• Enter the (mini) dragon: Karate girl, 5, beats 11-year-old on way to becoming British champ

London seeks lead role as China's currency goes global Posted: 22 May 2012 08:53 AM PDT London seeks lead role as China currency goes global

'Rude' cellist sacked in Beijing Posted: 22 May 2012 08:54 AM PDT The Beijing Symphony Orchestra sacks a Russian cellist after footage of him being rude to a fellow train passenger is posted online.

Why your child should invest in Mexican beer bottlers and other risky funds Posted: 22 May 2012 04:18 PM PDT Children can't touch the money for 18 years, and so have time to make up any short-term losses from these volatile markets which, in the longer term, are expected to grow massively.

CITY FOCUS: Marc Bolland's moves to wake up M&S Posted: 22 May 2012 03:38 PM PDT The jury is still out on chief executive Marc Bolland's strategy. He has sown the seeds for growth but historically M&S has failed to follow through on many of its initiatives.

Madeira magic leaves former Ryder Cup star Wilson hoping life's a piece of cake Posted: 22 May 2012 03:14 PM PDT Four years ago Oliver Wilson eased the disappointment of a sudden-death play-off defeat in the BMW PGA Championship by forcing his way into Europe's Ryder Cup team.

After years of indecision and a drain of expertise, how Britain's nuclear future (and YOUR money) could end up in the hands of the Chinese Posted: 22 May 2012 02:20 PM PDT ALEX BRUMMER says the idea that £110 billion of new investment in the country's future energy needs can be found without a government subsidy, as ministers claim, is disgraceful piece of government dissembling.

Ray J treated for 'exhaustion and jet lag' as he is hospitalised morning after Billboard Awards Posted: 22 May 2012 02:01 PM PDT However, Ray is also believed to have had a run-in with Whitney Houston's family at the Billboard Awards on Sunday night which may have thrown him off course.

Nigeria holds 45 Chinese traders Posted: 22 May 2012 03:34 PM PDT Nigerian immigration officials arrest 45 Chinese nationals in the city of Kano for alleged illegal textile trading, accusing them of "scavenging".

Stop... hover time: Chinese technicians create utterly unconvincing photoshopped propaganda image showing officials floating in midair Posted: 22 May 2012 01:42 PM PDT They have the biggest army in the world and a huge economy but it would appear China still has a bit to learn when it comes to propaganda after a poorly Photoshopped image of a 'floating' man triggers ridicule on the internet.

Dancing with wolves: The 10-year-old girl who kisses, cuddles and feeds predatory beasts like they are domestic puppy dogs Posted: 22 May 2012 01:32 PM PDT Jumping gamely into the steel cage clad only in army fatigues the young girl was happy to kiss, cuddle and feed the two-year-old predatory beasts like they were domestic puppy dogs.

Advertising spending sees sluggish growth Posted: 22 May 2012 09:50 AM PDT Source: By Meng Fanbin (China Daily) China's advertising expenditure in traditional media, including newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and outdoor, increased just 1.4 percent in the first quarter, the lowest in nearly five years, according to a report released by CTR, a market information and research service provider in China. Internet advertising expenditures increased by 25.9 percent, down from last year's 35.5 percent, according to statistics from IResearch, an organization focusing on researching China's Internet industry. The trend is the same in the international advertising market, which has begun to show slow growth from last year. China's GDP in the first quarter increased 8.1 percent year-on-year, the lowest in the past three years, which contributed to the drop in the advertising growth rate. "Although the fluctuations in the advertising market are not exactly in line with those in the entire micro-economy, they are closely connected with the economic situation," said Professor Huang Shengmin, dean of the Advertising School at the Communication University of China. "The first quarter is an off-season period for the ads. Despite the slowdown in growth, firms do not plan to reduce their annual advertising budget. They are waiting for a more appropriate time, " said Zhao Yihe, vice-president of Charm Communication. Newspaper advertising fell 6.3 percent year-on-year. Radio advertising grew 9.9 percent in the first quarter, and the drop in the growth rate sharply contrasted with the 39 percent growth seen last year, the report said. Apart from the gloomy economy ,a slowdown in sectors including property and automobiles has affected the advertising market, Huang said. China's total vehicle sales declined 3.4 percent year-on-year, and 4.79 million vehicles sold in the first quarter. This had a particular effect on radio advertising, which relies heavily on revenue from the auto industry. Although TV still outclassed other traditional media, with the small screen retaining an overwhelming market share, spending on TV advertising grew just 1.9 percent year-on-year, dropping sharply from last year's growth rate of 17 percent, the report said. Compared with last year, the duration of advertisements on China Central Television reduced significantly, while advertising expenditure declined 0.2 percent. The length of commercials on provincial TV stations declined 14.8 percent year-on-year, but their advertising revenue increased 1.9 percent, thanks to increased advertising rates. The duration of commercials during TV plays slumped in the first quarter because of a recently released regulation from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. The supplementary provision for TV advertising said commercials, starting on Jan 1, are no longer allowed to appear in the middle of TV dramas lasting for 45 minutes. Traditional outdoor advertisement spending increased 2.5 percent year-on-year, down 1.5 percentage points, and the post and transport industry experienced significant growth. The fast development of rail transit in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou injected fresh momentum into the outdoor advertising sector. Subway and light rail advertising spending increased 18.8 percent over the same period last year. Advertisements on TVs on buses and buildings boomed in the first quarter, up 26 percent and 35 percent respectively. "Charm Group's total turnover increased 6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, not only because our business covers new and traditional media, but also because our customers come from different industries," Zhao said. Fast food brands such as KFC and website brands such as Moonbasa and Zhenai.com showed great enthusiasm for new media, like Internet and subway TV. Cosmetics and bathroom product companies reduced their spending on videos on buildings, the report said. KFC and McDonald's reduced their advertising spending on traditional media, down 5.8 percent and 5.6 percent respectively. Owing to higher costs and fierce competition, the two multinational fast-food companies are seeking more affordable channels to advertise, the report said. Among the top five fastest-growing industries in advertising spending, alcoholic beverages saw outstanding growth, up 14.7 percent, and more liquor companies attached importance to brand loyalty. L'Oreal's market share of advertising on traditional media caught up with P&G's, soaring 47.9 percent. And Maybelline's advertising spending jumped 202.6 percent, making it enter the top 10 brands in advertising spending, the report said. A report from L'Oreal showed that its sales volume hit 10.7 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in 2011, an increase of 18 percent year-on-year. It was the 11th time that L'Oreal's sales rose more than 10 percent in China. "The growth of China's advertising market could start to recover in the second half of this year, if China's economy doesn't experience a hard landing," Huang predicted. Zhao was also confident about the development of China's advertising market. "With the start of the London Olympics, more companies are expected to increase their advertising spending." "The confidence index of domestic enterprises remains stable in 2012. The growth rate of advertising expenditure will gradually rise this year, thanks to the emergence of some new sectors such as financial services, and the rapid development of new media, " he added.

Nissan Says It Is Near Approval to Build Cars in China Posted: 22 May 2012 09:55 AM PDT Source: Wall Street Journal By Joanne Chiu | Photo: Reuters HONG KONG—Nissan Motor Co. said it expects to get approval within a month from the Chinese government to make Infiniti cars in the country, as the auto maker seeks to localize production to contend with the strong yen. Nissan Executive Vice President Andy Palmer made the prediction Tuesday but didn't say whether production of the luxury models would be at existing plants the company operates with Dongfeng Motor Group Co. or if the partners would build a new production base in China. Nissan plans to produce two Infiniti models in China in 2014. The models currently are made mainly at plants in Japan's Tochigi and Fukuoka prefectures. Mr. Palmer said the company would name an executive to run its global Infiniti division "within weeks." Nissan plans to boost the luxury line's sales to 500,000 units a year by 2016, from around 145,000 in the fiscal year ended in March. China would account for around a fifth of the sale target, with Nissan expanding to 100 dealerships in China from around 50 today, Mr. Palmer said in an interview. Infiniti's plan to produce cars in China would put the auto maker on a more level playing field with rival brands that produce locally and would allow the company to avoid import tariffs of 25%, said Marvin Zhu, a manager at research firm LMC Automotive. Infiniti in April moved into new global headquarters in Hong Kong, tapping the city's proximity to China to boost sales of the luxury brand in the world's largest automobile market. Nissan also plans to sell Infinitis in Hong Kong this year, Mr. Palmer said. Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said Singapore was the other city on the shortlist for consideration. That Hong Kong was chosen was a triumph for the city over its longtime rival for foreign investment and was the first time Hong Kong was selected as the headquarters for a car maker. "Obviously, because of the importance of China for us and the growth in China, we ended up going to Hong Kong, but there were many other locations being considered and there has been a lot of debate," Mr. Ghosn said at the opening ceremony of the Infiniti headquarters on Tuesday. He said Hong Kong would give Nissan proximity to Southeast Asia as well as the high-growth market of India and that it was important for Nissan to distinguish the Infiniti brand from the mainstay Nissan line in Japan. Nissan, Japan's No. 2 auto maker by volume, behind Toyota Motor Corp., is attempting to localize production to mitigate the yen's continued rise against the dollar. That strength makes Japan-made products comparatively more expensive in the U.S. and other markets where the currency is tied to dollar, such as China. Nissan rivals Volkswagen AG, BMW and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG make cars in China. The strong yen also decreases the value of Japanese companies' overseas profits when they are repatriated. Without localizing production in other countries, Nissan will become "a prisoner of one particular currency," Mr. Ghosn said. Nissan also plans to establish a production base in Europe, having reached a deal with the European unit of Canada's Magna International Inc. to start assembling Infiniti compact cars in 2014. Mr. Palmer, the Nissan executive vice president, said using Magna Steyr's factory in Austria was an option for the facility but declined to elaborate. He said Nissan expects to sell more than 98,000 Infiniti cars in the U.S. in the fiscal year through next March and that the company has no plan to scale down production in the country. "The U.S. market is still seeing growth," he said.

Macau Labor Shortage Seen as Hurdle for Casino Expansion Posted: 22 May 2012 10:00 AM PDT Source: Bloomberg News By Vinicy Chan Macau's $34 billion gaming industry has an obstacle. With 28 million visitors and 21 percent economic growth last year, Macau is confronting a severe labor shortage. The Chinese city, one of two of the country's special administrative regions along with Hong Kong, is the world's largest gambling hub by revenue and is close to full employment. As a result, casino operators such as Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) and Hong Kong-traded Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. (27) are having trouble finding workers as they seek to draw more of the Chinese tourists who drove gambling revenue up 42 percent last year. Rules requiring firms to hire from Macau's population of about half a million are driving up wages and have casino operators competing for card dealers, construction workers and executives. "It's a challenge everybody faces," said Edward Tracy, chief executive officer at Sands China Ltd. (1928) "You have a base population of 500,000 and an unemployment rate of 2.1 percent. That 2.1 is almost zero: those people are probably not looking for a job." Joblessness in the former Portuguese colony is at the lowest since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 2002. It contrasts with the 15 percent monthly unemployment rate in Portugal, 8.1 percent in the U.S. and Spain's 24 percent. The rules not only make it harder to hire staff, they also contribute to a rise in wages, though casino profits aren't suffering. Surging Profits At Sands China, for example, the Asian unit of billionaire Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas company, profit rose sixfold in the three years through 2011. Tracy says a big worry is the 4,000 positions he'd like to fill. In December, average earnings, excluding bonuses and allowances, of full-time employees rose by 6.5 percent in the gaming sector to 16,720 patacas ($2,090), according to government data. The gambling industry's need for more workers, however, has hurt small businesses such as restaurants by forcing them to raise wages to compete with the casinos, said Fung Kwan, head of the economics department at the University of Macau. "Labor shortage has been an ongoing problem for Macau," said Kwan. "The recent casino developments have exacerbated the problem and we've seen the casinos nabbing labor from other sectors. Labor cost for the whole of Macau is rising." Gambling revenue represented about 40 percent of Macau's gross domestic product last year, he said. Baccarat Dealers At the baccarat table in the Venetian Macau, a dealer who said she goes by the nickname of "Ah Fong" said her monthly salary of 20,000 patacas is more than double the amount she used to make as a waitress. "Only Macau residents are permitted to work as dealers, so there's a huge demand for us," she said. The competition for labor is set to increase. Wynn Macau Ltd. (1128), gaming magnate Steve Wynn's Hong Kong-listed unit, was given the go-ahead to build a second casino resort in Macau this month. Galaxy, the casino operator that more than tripled earnings last year, plans to invest $2.1 billion to double the size of its resort in three years. Adelson opened the first phase of his Sands Cotai Central casino in April and that resort will add 4,000 hotel rooms and 200 gaming tables over the next year. 'Pressure on Wages' "The shortage of labor will be exacerbated when the new resorts come online, particularly with respect to positions that can only be filled by Macau residents," said Grant Govertsen, a Macau-based analyst at Union Gaming Group. "This will put further upward pressure on wages." Wynn Macau fell 4.1 percent to close at HK$18.54 in Hong Kong trading, the lowest level since Jan. 16, while Galaxy shares dropped 5 percent, the most since Nov. 11. Sands China lost 3.8 percent. The benchmark Hang Seng Index (HSI) rose 0.6 percent. Macau, which is 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of Hong Kong and half the size of New York's Manhattan, is the only place in China where gambling in casinos is legally allowed. The city has been benefiting from a jump in economic growth and job creation since opening up its gaming industry in 2001. It has a population of a little more than half a million and a work force of 346,000. Under government rules, some jobs, such as those of casino dealers, can only be held by local residents. Companies need to get approval from the governor before they can hire any non- resident worker, according to the norms set out by Macau's Labor Affairs Bureau. Political Process For approval, companies must ensure that salaries of local workers won't be affected upon the employment of foreign workers and the proportion between resident and non-resident workers must be "acceptable," according to the guidelines. Sands China has more than 22,000 employees and 6,000 of them are from outside Macau, according to Melina Leong, the company's vice president for public relations. Sands China raised employee wages by about 6 percent last year. One hope is the Macau government will loosen restrictions on foreign hiring to help the industry sustain growth. Macau's local labor force is not sufficient to cope with the recent projects and the city needs more outside workers, Kwan said. "There's a political process that has to happen," said Sands China's Tracy. "My belief is, as long as we develop the next one or two projects, we'll begin to see some relaxation." Galaxy Deputy Chairman Francis Lui also said in a press briefing today that he expects the Macau government may consider raising the foreign labor quota. 'Solution to Accommodate' "The current unemployment rate of 2 percent in Macau is very healthy," said Lui. "As there will be a lot of large infrastructure projects coming online, the government may soon come up with a solution to accommodate the need for labor." Macau's labor department press section couldn't be reached by phone or e-mail. Other gambling operators are also awaiting approvals for further expansion. MGM China Holdings Ltd. (2282) and SJM Holdings Ltd. (880) are awaiting approval of land leases for construction on an increasingly popular part of the city called the Cotai strip, while Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (MPEL), which already operates the City of Dreams casino on Cotai, waits for permission to begin the $1.9 billion Studio City resort. For local residents such as 46-year-old "Ah Fong," who switched careers from waitressing about four years ago, the restrictions are a boon for now. "It offers good money," she said of work in the casino. "Even my son, who is now 14, wants to become a dealer when he finishes school."

A Beijing Ticket to Hollywood Posted: 22 May 2012 10:07 AM PDT Source: Wall Street Journal By Michelle Kung and Ryan Dezember In 2008 Dalian Wanda Group Corp. Chairman Wang Jianlin dressed from head to toe in traditional Mongolian garb before delivering a speech on corporate responsibility to the Inner Mongolian Federation of Industry and Finance. Now, Mr. Wang is wooing friends in another exotic territory: Hollywood. Wanda, a real estate developer and manufacturer that has also invested in karaoke clubs, is poised to become one of the biggest players in the U.S. movie business. The company said late Sunday that it plans to spend $2.6 billion to buy the second-largest U.S. cinema chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings, a 92-year-old concern with more than 5,000 screens, primarily in the U.S. and Canada. The deal would create one of the world's largest cinema owners and mark the largest acquisition of a U.S. corporation by a Chinese buyer on record. It also confounded many in the U.S. film business, who could find few synergies between AMC and Wanda, which got into the movie business in 2005 and now runs 86 movie theaters in China, along with production and distribution operations. The acquisition is a reversal of typical Chinese-American entertainment-business deals, in which U.S. studios have sought access to China's explosive growth and a way to skirt the tight limits the country puts on foreign films. "This deal caught us by surprise, because we've never seen this kind of emphatic strategic acquisition by a Chinese media company," said Standard & Poor's stock analyst Tuna Amobi. "It has usually been the reverse, where U.S. companies like Disney or News Corp. go to China." Started as a commercial real-estate developer, Wanda Group operates 28 luxury hotels and 40 department stores around China, according to the company's website. It has dabbled in manufacturing tires but has mostly stuck to real estate, hotels, tourism, entertainment and retail. Mr. Wang, Wanda's chairman, said on a webcast announcing the deal that Chinese-made movies would eventually enter the broader U.S. market, but the move would be gradual. He added that Wanda wouldn't use AMC as a vehicle to distribute Chinese movies. Whether the chain shows Chinese movies "will be decided by AMC management according to U.S. industry rules and market demand," he said. "Wanda won't meddle in it." He also said Wanda would look for other deals, targeting big cinema operators in Europe and the U.S. China-based executives at Wanda didn't return calls seeking additional comment regarding Wanda's strategy. A corporate predecessor was state-controlled, but Wanda is now privately controlled, though Mr. Wang carefully cultivates his political relationships—a necessity for a major successful business in China. He is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress, a group that meets once a year in Beijing to advise the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp lawmaking body. He has publicly pushed for lower taxes on the business sector and for an easing of China's heavy luxury tax, which is often listed as a reason Chinese do much of their luxury shopping abroad. Mr. Wang, who is in his late 50s, also tries to cultivate an air of business sophistication at Wanda, telling local media in interviews that he requires his staff to wear suits to work. He also occasionally cites U.S. brands when he speaks, telling a group of Dalian business leaders in 2007 on the importance of branding: "The Coca-Cola CEO once said that even if Coca-Cola was burnt out overnight, the company can raise tens of billions of dollars for reconstruction by the strength of its brand name." In interviews, he has also listed Simon Property Group Inc. of the U.S. as a real-estate industry benchmark he compares Wanda with. Mr. Wang is the sixth-wealthiest person in China, according to the Hurun Report, which estimated his wealth at $7.1 billion last year. A soccer fan, Mr. Wang has also tried to ride to the rescue of that sport in China. Soccer there has been beset by bribery, match-fixing and poor quality on the field. Last year he agreed to contribute roughly 500 million yuan ($79 million) under a deal with the Chinese Football Association to sponsor league play, set up youth leagues and referee training. Wanda lists its operational headquarters in Beijing but has extensive ties in its original hometown of Dalian. By entering the U.S. movie business, Wanda joins an industry that has long blamed China for billions of dollars in lost sales of movie tickets and DVDs. Hollywood has often accused China of abetting piracy—or at least failing to adequately police DVD bootlegging and online copying. In buying AMC, Wanda would also see up close the other challenges facing Hollywood, including competition from online diversions and stagnating ticket sales. Unlike the rapidly growing Chinese film industry, which is building new theaters at a blistering pace, the U.S. industry is in flux. Theater attendance and box office grosses are up 18.4% and 15.7%, respectively, so far this year, but the growth follows two years of declines. U.S. movie attendance fell to 1.3 billion in 2011, a 16-year low, according to Hollywood.com, cutting into theaters' two biggest revenue sources: sales of tickets and concession-stand popcorn and other munchies. Price increases have offset declines in attendance only so much—and have risked turning off moviegoers who shelled out an average $7.93 per ticket, and considerably more for 3-D movies or IMAX. Box-office revenue in the U.S. and Canada fell 4% in 2011 to $10.2 billion. China's box-office revenue, meanwhile, climbed 29% to 13.1 billion yuan last year, according to China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Until now, most Hollywood-China deals have involved American studios trying to break into the Chinese market. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. in February announced plans to form a joint venture with state-owned investment-management company China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group Inc., one of China's largest television broadcasters. Also in February the Chinese government relaxed its limits on foreign films, saying it will now allow a total 34 films from abroad a year, up from 20, so long as the additional films use either large-screen IMAX or 3-D technologies. News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, said last week it would acquire a nearly 20% stake in film distributor Bona Film Group Ltd. to give it a stronger foothold there The deal comes amid a broad push from the top echelons of China's leadership for a greater emphasis on film, animation and other pop-culture subjects. The push is intended to bolster China's soft power, to give it the same international sway the U.S. enjoys through the global popularity of Hollywood movies. AMC is owned by private-equity firms which include CCMP Capital Advisers LLC, Apollo Global Management LLC, Bain Capital LLC, Carlyle Group LP, and Spectrum Equity Investors LP. People familiar with the matter said the sale will be bring modest profits to those firms. The proposed deal needs to be approved by a number of regulatory committees on both sides. In the U.S., the deal needs antitrust approval by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department.

After Yahoo deal, challenges abound for Alibaba Posted: 22 May 2012 10:10 AM PDT Source: Reuters By Melanie Lee (Reuters) – China's Alibaba Group could command a Facebook-rivalling valuation of $100 billion when it comes to list its shares, possibly by 2015 – but its more immediate challenge is to hang on to top spot in the country's $36 billion e-commerce market. Founded and led by Internet entrepreneur Jack Ma, Alibaba faces increasingly tough competition in its e-commerce stronghold from well-funded rivals 360buy, which is backed by Digital Sky Technologies, Dangdang Inc and Amazon.com Inc. Tencent Holdings, China's leading online games and social networking firm, has also said it will build up its e-commerce business by creating a separate unit. "All the big Internet players have gotten into each other's spaces with this idea that you can create a hermetically-sealed world where users never have to leave your platform," said Mark Natkin, managing director of tech consultancy Marbridge Consulting. Tencent's huge user base – it has 575 million active users on its Qzone social site, which is linked to the popular QQ instant messaging application – and record of expanding successfully into new ventures could challenge Alibaba, which needs to maintain its high growth rate for a successful future listing. Alibaba Group revenue grew at a compound annual rate of 72 percent in 2008-2010. "Competition is going to get more intense with Tencent entering the market," said JPMorgan analyst Dick Wei. CORE FOCUS This week, Alibaba ended more than two years of often fractious negotiations with Yahoo Inc to buy back much of a stake held by the U.S. web giant and, crucially, reduce the voting power of foreign stakeholders including Yahoo and Japan's Softbank Corp – allowing Ma to focus on growing his business. "With the Yahoo share disposal and the plans laid out for it, Alibaba's management team can focus more on the core business itself," said JPMorgan's Wei. As part of the deal with Yahoo, incentives for Alibaba to list its shares end by December 2015. The company has said there is no timetable for a listing. Alibaba is planning to take its Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com unit private. Bankers said Alibaba's strong earnings growth – EBITDA is close to $1 billion – values the group at $30-$35 billion and is likely to at least treble in the next 3-4 years. By contrast, Baidu Inc, China's Google equivalent, is currently valued at $42 billion. UNDER FIRE The challenge to Alibaba's market leadership is likely to be in the mid- to long-term, but will be no less intense, and could be costly. Ma said last year that Alibaba, which doesn't currently own delivery infrastructure, will invest up to $4.5 billion to ramp up its logistics. Its Taobao Marketplace, which dominates China's vast consumer-to-consumer e-commerce market, similar to eBay, has seen its market share slip to around 70 percent from 80 percent in 2008, according to data from Analysys International. Its Taobao Mall has about 50 percent share in the business-to-consumer market. 360buy, China's largest online retailer, has said it wouldn't consider a public listing before next year, but a cash infusion would give it a boost in the e-commerce space where spending on marketing is high and brutal price wars are common. Taobao, Alibaba's crown jewel and virtual cash machine, accounted for almost two-thirds of $2.8 billion group revenue in 2011. But it has come under fire over fake items sold on its platform, and was last year placed on the United States Trade Representative's (USTR) notorious markets blacklist for offering a wide range of goods that infringed copyrights. "They need to go public as a group, but they also need to separate the asset that is having questionable intellectual property issues," said Eric Wen of Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong. "Taobao inherently has many issues, such as people selling fake goods," said a banking source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. "This is something Jack Ma has to clean up before the group lists." Alibaba has petitioned the USTR over its blacklisting, stressing its efforts to work with intellectual property rights holders to combat piracy. Last July, Chinese police arrested 36 people in connection with operating fraud on Alibaba.com, prompting an internal memo from Ma and top executive resignations.

Have You Heard… After Yahoo deal, challenges abound for Posted: 22 May 2012 10:15 AM PDT Have You Heard… After Yahoo deal, challenges abound for Alibaba A Beijing Ticket to Hollywood Macau Labor Shortage Seen as Hurdle for Casino Expansion Nissan Says It Is Near Approval to Build Cars in China Advertising spending sees sluggish growth

Ray J treated for 'exhaustion and jet lag' as he is hospitalised morning after Billboard Awards Posted: 22 May 2012 11:31 AM PDT However, Ray is also believed to have had a run-in with Whitney Houston's family at the Billboard Awards on Sunday night which may have thrown him off course.

Google buys Motorola for $12.5 billion - paving the way for even MORE Google-branded gadgets Posted: 22 May 2012 09:35 AM PDT Google is widely expected to use the acquisition to produce further phones and tablets running its Android software - and perhaps a new version of its Google TV service.

FTSE CLOSE: Hopes for EU 'growth summit' lift investor mood; inflation falls to 3% Posted: 22 May 2012 09:31 AM PDT Investors were lured back into the market today by hopes of further stimulus measures in China and optimism ahead of a key EU summit.

Enter the (mini) dragon: Karate girl, 5, beats 11-year-old on way to becoming British champ Posted: 22 May 2012 09:25 AM PDT Little Derry McGunnigal isn't one to be beaten to the punch! The pint-sized five-year-old has become British Taekwondo champion where she took on an opponent more than twice her age.