Banking Deal

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) announced on February 2 the acquisition of a 60-percent stake in Standard Bank Plc.

Based in London, Standard Bank Plc is the international commodities and foreign exchange arm of Standard Bank Group (SBG), the largest African banking group by assets.

ICBC Chairman Jiang Jianqing noted that the liberalization of China's capital market and the development of offshore yuan business, as well as the acceleration of overseas investment, have combined to drive demand for global business.

"The acquisition of Standard Bank Plc is important for ICBC to proactively deal with this demand," Jiang said in an official statement.

By leveraging the two global networks and resources, the joint venture could become a global market platform that satisfies the strategic goals of both.

ICBC is China's largest commercial bank in terms of assets. It purchased a 20-percent stake in SBG in 2008 and an 80-percent stake in Standard Bank Argentina in 2012.

More Elastic Pricing

China lifted basic freight railway rates by 0.01 yuan per ton each kilometer and allowed an upper floating range of 10 percent at most, the country's top economic planner announced on January 30.

The adjustment from the previous 0.1451 yuan per ton each kilometer to 0.1551 yuan took effect on February 1 while the new floating range will be implemented on August 1. It is up to the railway cargo enterprises to set the specific price, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Preferential freight rates for fertilizers and phosphate ore have also been scraped and the government no longer charges enterprises the comprehensive logistics fee for carrying large commodities.

The rate change aims to make the railway cargo pricing mechanism more flexible and to encourage more social capital inflows into railway construction and will not impact ticket prices, according to the NDRC. ($1=6.12 yuan)

Illegal Trading Punished

Eleven fund management companies were penalized for insider and rat trading, the securities regulator announced on January 30.

Five fund management companies, including China AMC and HFT Investment Management Co. Ltd., have been prohibited from handling public fund registration for three to six months, while another six firms were asked to rectify their practices by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

The securities regulator launched a crackdown, focusing on 15 fund management companies, last December.

China's assets management sector saw impressive growth in 2014, with total business scale reaching 10 trillion yuan ($1.63 trillion), up 101 percent.

The CSRC will continue to conduct regular checks to increase risk awareness and guard investors' interests, according to the announcement.

Solar-Powered Ambition

Hanergy Holding Group Ltd., the world's largest thin-film solar power company, will launch as many as five models of solar-powered cars in October, its chairman announced on February 2.

Hanergy is cooperating with three overseas and two domestic partners on the vehicles, Li Hejun, Chairman of Hanergy, told a press conference. Hanergy announced in late January that it had acquired Alta Devices, an American competitor, with charging stations for Tesla in Beijing and Shanghai.

The new models will have a range of 80 km to 100 km when fully charged, he said.

"There are currently only 400,000 electric cars in the world, but the market is expected to hit 10 million by 2020," said Li.