Food

McDonald's: Group-buy offers fake

The fast food chain McDonald's Corp says it has not signed any deals with group-purchase companies following the discovery of discounts for its products being sold on one of China's most popular group-buying websites.

A spokesman for McDonald's Beijing, Weng Xiaomeng, said the company did not authorize any site to introduce offers for its products. "Our operating department will take any follow-up action to deal with this, including legal action," Weng said.

The remarks came after, Gaopeng, a joint venture between Groupon Inc in the US and Tencent Holdings Ltd in China, started offering a discount on McDonald's set meals this month.

Resources

SOA: Bohai oil spills 'ConocoPhillips' fault'

China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said that spills at an oilfield operated by ConocoPhillips Co in the Bohai Bay resulted from defects in the company's production and management.

ConocoPhillips had violated the original protocol of exploitation and failed to take necessary precautions when there was high risk of a spill, said a statement from the SOA, which has been investigating the cause of the accident since soon after it happened in early June.

Oil spills were found near platforms B and C of the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, polluting around 6,200 square km of water in the Bohai Sea, causing the country's worst ever incident of offshore maritime pollution.

Sinopec to buy 30% stake in Galp unit

China Petrochemical Corp, Asia's biggest refiner, has agreed to pay $3.54 billion for a 30 percent stake in the Brazilian unit of Galp Energia SGPS SA, in China's largest overseas energy acquisition this year.

The refiner, also known as Sinopec Group, will subscribe for new shares to be issued by Galp and assume shareholder loans, the Beijing company said.

This year Chinese energy companies have bid at least $16 billion for overseas oil and gas assets to expand reserves and supply the world's largest energy consumer. Galp, which has a share in the western hemisphere's biggest oil discovery since 1976, said this year it would seek to raise 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) through the sale of part of its Brazilian unit.

Deal

MS unit eyes stake in Chinese packager

Morgan Stanley's Asia private equity arm is in talks to buy a majority stake in the Chinese packager HCP Holdings Inc, sources with knowledge of the matter said, a deal that could value the company at about $500 million. The private equity arm aims to buy about 80 percent of HCP, said one of the sources.

UBS AG was advising the fund on the acquisition, and was seeking lenders for a $260 million loan to back the deal, said the sources, who declined to be named because the transaction was private. HCP, Morgan Stanley and UBS all declined comment.

Machinery

Caterpillar moves to buy Chinese company

China will continue to be a major overseas market, especially in mining, for the US earthmoving-equipment maker Caterpillar Inc, a company official says.

Caterpillar has made mining one of its priorities for the coming years. It offered to buy ERA Mining Machinery, a Chinese maker of mine safety machinery. The sale would require the approval of Chinese regulators.

Richard Lavin, group president of Caterpillar, said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit CEO meeting in Hawaii that the $886 million purchase would be "a very strategic acquisition" that would help Caterpillar expand mining equipment sales to other countries.

Technology

Huawei to buy Symantec stake in JV

The Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd says it will pay $530 million for full ownership of the company's current joint venture with the US computer software security firm Symantec Corp.

The firm will buy the 49 percent stake in the company that was owned by Symantec, a statement posted on Huawei's website said.

The deal would put Huawei Symantec Technologies Co Ltd of Hong Kong solely into Huawei's hands.

Property

CBRE to invest in real estate market

Anticipating that the Chinese government will start easing its property curbs, CBRE Global Investors, which manages real estate assets worth $94.8 billion, plans to make its first investment in the country's housing market in four years.

The unit of the world's largest commercial real estate brokerage is in talks with Chinese partners and local governments. It plans to buy a site for residential development by the second quarter of next year, said Richard van den Berg, Greater China country manager.

Telecom

Ericsson staffing up on mainland

Ericsson AB, the world's largest maker of mobile-phone networks, has aggressively expanded its staff in China this year so it can win more business in the market with the world's biggest mobile-telecommunications population.

The number of employees is up 30 percent year-on-year to about 13,000, said Mats Olsson, head of China & North East Asia. He said the hiring was driven by the growth of Ericsson China and the impact of local and global acquisitions.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 11/18/2011 page14)