China

Two Chinese private equity funds are closing in on a deal to buy the asset management arm of Dexia, highlighting the interest of Asian buyers in European financial assets as banks look to restructure in the wake of the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. If the sale of the business for about €500m is completed, it would mark the last stage of a break-up of the twice-bailed-out Belgo-French bank, one of the biggest European victims of successive financial crises during the past four years.

Sino-Forest Corp said on Tuesday it terminated a proposed asset sale, in favor of a plan that will result in the company's creditors acquiring all of its forestry assets, Reuters reported. The Chinese forestry company's shares plummeted in June 2011 after a short-seller accused it of exaggerating the size of its forestry assets. The company's stock has since been de-listed by the Toronto Stock Exchange and one of Canada's main securities regulators - the Ontario Securities Commission, recently charged the company and some of its former executives with fraud.

Central banks around the world took major steps Thursday to stave off fears of global recession, with the European Central Bank slashing interest rates, China unexpectedly cutting bank lending rates and the Bank of England pumping billions of pounds into Britain’s stimulus program, The Washington Post reported. The measures reflect a growing sense of international urgency about faltering economies and underline the continued power of central banks to take unilateral measures to fight the crisis, even as elected policymakers haggle over their own long-term responses.

Many Chinese exporters are starting to hoard the dollars they earn, betting that the yuan is unlikely to appreciate much more, a shift in strategy that is having a ripple effect throughout the country's financial system, The Wall Street Journal reported. Until recently, Chinese exporters like state-owned Huihong International Group and privately held Saijia Co. had rushed to sell their dollar earnings to banks as soon as they got paid, in exchange for the appreciating yuan.

China’s manufacturing sector has slowed further in June and a decline in new orders shows that the weakness is likely to drag on, according to a survey released on Thursday, the Financial Times reported. HSBC said its Chinese purchasing managers’ index was on track to fall to 48.1 in June from 48.4 in May, which would mark a seven-month low. In dipping further below the 50 threshold, the flash figure, which is the earliest piece of monthly economic data for China, indicates a steepening contraction of factory activity.

A Chinese-born Swedish investor with Japanese support has agreed to buy bankrupt automaker Saab Automobile and plans to bring it back to life as a maker of electric cars, with an initial focus on the Chinese market, Reuters reported. Saab, which has been making cars since 1947, crashed into bankruptcy at the end of 2011, less than two years after former owner General Motors sold it to Dutch group Spyker. Though an admired brand with a loyal fanbase, Saab had struggled for years to survive against bigger competitors.

Chinese auto firm Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile has made an improved 5 billion crown ($700 million) bid for bankrupt carmaker Saab, Swedish media reported on Friday, Reuters reported. Daily Svenska Dagbladet quoted Youngman's representative in Sweden saying the Chinese firm had raised its bid for all of Saab's assets from an offer of 3 billion crowns it made in February. "Our revised bid includes all parts of Saab's bankruptcy estate, including the spare parts unit," the paper quoted Johan Nylen, Youngman's representative saying.

A slew of recent statistics confirm that China’s growth is slowing at a faster pace than expected, forcing anxious policymakers to debate which levers to pull to revive the economic juggernaut and preserve the ruling Communist Party’s last major pillar of legitimacy, The Washington Post reported. Unlike in past slowdowns, Chinese officials appear far less confident this time about what to do. Facing unpalatable choices — each carrying risks — the country’s top leaders have sent out confusing signals and statements in recent days. The crisis is coming at a perilous time here.

A debt-laden Spanish construction firm became the latest European company to unload assets onto eager Chinese buyers, as Europe's debt woes force firms to look to China for cash, The Wall Street Journal reported. State Grid Corp., China's government controlled power-grid operator, said Tuesday it would buy high-voltage electricity transmission assets in Brazil from Spain's Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA for 1.86 billion reais ($938.2 million), including debt.

Some of China's biggest banks have cut off a handful of their European counterparts from borrowing and derivatives trading as they seek to reduce their exposure to the simmering crisis on the Continent, people familiar with the matter said, The Wall Street Journal reported. Chinese state-owned banks including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of Communications Co.