Lenovo drives big data take up in car making industry
August 17th, 2017
He Zhiqiang, president of Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, and Sun Zhongchun, general manager of Haima Car Co Ltd, at a news conference in Zhengzhou, Henan province, Aug 16, 2017.
China's biggest personal computer giant Lenovo and domestic auto maker Haima will join forces to promote the use of big data and artificial intelligence technology in the auto manufacturing industry.
Under the deal announced on Wednesday, Lenovo will examine Haima's sales data to come up with solutions to help the car maker target potential customers. In the future, the two companies will collaborate in areas like new car design and development, and smart manufacturing.
The move comes as the hardware veteran is gearing up its expansion in big data to go with its traditional strengths in manufacturing.
In 2016, the company's big data arm began offering services to other companies, before that it was an internal operation. By utilizing its own big data analysis platform, Lenovo has provided solutions to clients from various industries including metallurgy, medicine and tobacco.
Relying on its experience in manufacturing and its big data technologies, Lenovo is making efforts to drive China's manufacturing enterprises to transform and upgrade, He Zhiqiang, president of Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, said at the strategy cooperation signing ceremony held in Zhengzhou, China's Central Henan province.
JD Finance spinoff paves way for listing
August 16th, 2017
JD Finance promotes its online financing products to consumers in Nanjing.
JD Finance, the finance unit of China's second biggest e-commerce player JD.com Inc, has been deconsolidated from JD as a result of the reorganization as of June 30, 2017, which is expected to pave the way for the former's eventual listing.
Accordingly, JD Finance's historical financial results for periods prior to July 1 are reflected in JD's consolidated financial statements as discontinued operations, according to the company's second quarter financial results.
Analysts said JD Finance's spinoff is seen as a preparatory move towards it listing on a domestic stock exchange, as well as obtaining more financial licenses.
Yu Baicheng, an expert at wangdaizhijia.com, a web portal that tracks the internet finance industry, said the move will let JD Finance develop its businesses more independently.
"The spinoff will allow JD Finance to move more aggressively, as it could carry out more financial business easily, as well as help JD focus on its core e-commerce business," said Li Zichuan, an analyst at Beijing-based internet consultancy Analysys.
"We don't rule out the possibility that JD Finance will seek an initial public offering on a domestic stock exchange in the next few years," Li added.
JD Finance has sought privatization and a split from JD at the beginning of last year. In January 2016, JD Finance raised 6.65 billion yuan ($992 million) from investors such as Sequoia Capital China, China Harvest Investments and China Taiping Insurance.
Its business scope now covers supply chain finance, consumer finance, wealth management, crowd funding, insurance and security. The company is applying for financial service licenses as the country's middle class surges in size.
In November 2016, JD announced it would reorganize JD Finance, to make it a wholly Chinese-owned entity to facilitate its development in certain licensed financial service businesses and take advantage of the liquidity provided by the Chinese capital market.
In March, JD agreed to sell its 68.6 percent stake in its finance unit, JD Finance, for 14.3 billion yuan in cash by the middle of this year, and post-deal, JD will hold neither legal ownership nor effective control of JD Finance.
The spinoff of JD's financial arm is similar to that of Ant Financial Services Group, the financial affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding. It was split off from Alibaba and obtained business independence in 2014, making it a powerful financial player.
JD also announced that its net revenue reached 93.2 billion yuan in the second quarter, an increase of 43.6 percent year-on-year. Its gross merchandise volume in the second quarter increased 46 percent to 234.8 billion yuan, from 160.4 billion yuan in the same period last year.
China sees steady employment in July
August 14th, 2017China continued to see a stable job market in July, with the unemployment rate at a relatively low level, data showed Monday.
The country's urban surveyed unemployment rate was around 5.1 percent last month, lower than that for July 2016, according to Mao Shengyong, spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics.
The surveyed rate in major Chinese cities continued to stay at a relatively low level of less than 5 percent, Mao added.
"It was not easy to maintain the low unemployment rate in the month when college students graduate," Mao said. College graduates this year reached 7.95 million, up about 300,000 from 2016.
Some 8.55 million new jobs were created in China's urban regions from January to July, up 200,000 from the same period of last year, he said.
The Chinese government aims to create 11 million new jobs this year.
Chinese banks should seek clients to profit
August 11th, 2017Banks in China should focus on clients to pursue higher profit and reduce reliance on capital expansion as part of reforms in the industry, McKinsey said in a report yesterday.
Banks will usually spend between 5 and 15 years on reforms in order to improve asset quality, said John Qu, senior partner of McKinsey & Company.
"Reforms in China's banking industry is an all-out battle that involves retail, corporate, asset management, organization, information technology, and risk management risks," said Qu. "Banks need to focus on all these six sectors to ensure success."
Profit growth of Chinese banks hit a brake in the past five years amid interest rate liberalisation, slower economic growth, and tighter regulation against leverage.
The overall profit growth in the banking industry slowed from 13.1 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2013 to 4.6 percent in the first three months of this year, data from the China Banking Regulatory Commission showed.
McKinsey said Chinese banks will have to prioritize improving client experience across retail, corporate, and asset management units as part of their reform process, said McKinsey's quarterly Chinese banking industry CEO report.
GE to close part of New York facility, move work to China
August 10th, 2017General Electric (GE) announced late Tuesday that it will close its manufacturing facility in Rochester, New York and move the work to China.
GE told Xinhua on Wednesday that "the assembly of the electronic boards at this facility is not core to GE's manufacturing capabilities," and the company has already contracted 80 percent of these products to external partner suppliers.
The company said it will close the site by June 2018 and about 90 employees will be affected by the decision.
The work will be moved to China, where it will be done by GE's partner supplier, a U.S. manufacturing services company called Jabil, GE said.
Xiongan New Area sets up company to fund construction
August 8th, 2017
Photo taken on April 21, 2017 shows the scenery of the county seat of Rongcheng, north China's Hebei Province.
The management committee of Xiongan New Area has announced that a special company has been established to fund construction of the area.
With registered capital of 10 billion yuan (about 1.47 billion U.S. dollars), China Xiongan Construction & Investment Group is a state-owned company.
The Hebei provincial government approved its founding in July.
The company will raise fund to build houses and apartments, develop the Baiyangdian water area, and to build transport links, energy infrastructure and public facilities in Xiongan.
China announced plans in April to establish the Xiongan New Area, a new economic zone about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing. It covers Hebei's Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties.