CX Daily: Stocks Regulator Starts First Probe of STAR Market Company
European firms feel the pain of China’s Covid-19 resurgence, a business group says.
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In 2021, Amethystum Storage reported an 8.5% drop in revenue, which it attributed to the ongoing change in its business model from selling equipment to selling services . Photo: VCG
Optical storage /
In Depth: Stocks regulator starts first probe of STAR Market company
An optical storage equipment supplier whose share price has more than halved in the past year has become the first company listed on Shanghai’s high-tech STAR Market to be formally investigated by the securities regulator for violating information disclosure rules related to the activities of its controlling shareholders.
Amethystum Storage Technology Co. Ltd., whose profit plunged 93.4% last year, is also being scrutinized by the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) for failing to disclose that assets were pledged as guarantees for loans taken out by its shareholders and by other companies, some of whom are suspected of having links with the manufacturer’s customers.
PE /
As investors inside and outside China respond to the slump in overseas-traded Chinese stocks, private investors are facing up to the fact that share prices no longer fetch a guaranteed premium. In fact, many are now being discounted in the aftermath of a regulatory storm spanning multiple industries.
The storm started with worker protection. After several deaths of big tech employees made headlines, triggering widespread outrage, regulators took a closer look at the plight of China’s masses of delivery and other part-time gig economy workers.
Bain sees tough year for China’s private equity market
A container ship sails on the Huangpu River in July 2020. Photo: VCG
Supply chains /
European firms feel the pain of China’s Covid resurgence, business group says
The resurgence of Covid-19 across China has disrupted global supply chains and put pressure on foreign companies, said executives of the European Chamber of Commerce in China.
The world’s manufacturing powerhouse is facing the most severe wave of Covid-19 outbreaks since the virus first erupted in Wuhan at the end of 2019. Since March, the highly transmissible omicron variant has raged across China, prompting local authorities to impose drastic controls including restrictions on mobility and community lockdowns as Beijing persists with its Zero-Covid strategy.
Auditor /
BeiGene taps U.S. auditor in search of a way to dodge delisting
While regulators in Beijing and Washington debate how to settle a long-running audit standoff, some Chinese companies are blazing their own trails in search of a way to avoid getting kicked off American stock exchanges.
Chinese biotechnology company BeiGene Ltd. hired Boston-based accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP as the principal auditor of its financial statements to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), replacing China-based Ernst & Young Hua Ming LLP.
Funding /
Former HKEX boss’s investment startup hopes to harness machine learning
The former head of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Charles Li, plans to use machine learning technology in his new investment platform to help automate analytical and decision-making processes for investing in firms.
“The real economy is a sight to behold, but in the past, proper tools and thinking patterns to help small businesses were lacking,” the co-founder of Hong Kong-based Micro Connect Investments Ltd. told Caixin in an interview earlier this month.
Workers transport daily necessities in Shanghai on April 5, 2022. Photo: VCG
Shanghai /
Shanghai residents run low on fresh food as Covid lockdown creates logistics chaos
Locked-down residents of China’s financial center continue to suffer shortages of fresh food as deliveries pile up and the city’s distribution system buckles amid record Covid-19 case numbers.
Fears of contagion, movement restrictions both in and outside Shanghai, and questions about who can take delivery jobs and what vehicles they can drive have left the city underserved.
Shanghai Port tightens container truck rules amid Covid surge
Shanghai’s neighbors to host Covid close contacts as quarantine centers overflow
Batteries /
CATL’s first overseas factory to begin making EV batteries by year-end
Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) said its first overseas factory will be up and running in Germany by the end of this year after local officials gave the project the green light.
Authorities in Thüringen, Germany, cleared the plant to produce 8 gigawatt-hours’ worth of battery cells each year, with the firm hoping to eventually scale up to an intended capacity of 14 gigawatt-hours.
Billionaires /
Chinese migrants make the top 10 of Singapore’s Forbes billionaire list
Naturalized Singaporeans from China attained a significant presence on the list of the country’s top 10 billionaires, according to the latest edition of Forbes’ annual The World’s Billionaires.
With a net worth of $17.2 billion, Li Xiting, co-founder of Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co. Ltd., tops the country’s ranking even as his position on the global list fell to 94th from 82nd in 2021.
Quick hits /
Asia’s China-led $350 billion gas buildout stirs energy debate
Tencent closes game streaming site after Beijing blocks merger
Tycoons throw support behind John Lee to be Hong Kong’s next leader
Tech Insider /
JD.com founder hands off CEO title, Huawei’s battery bet
China’s makeshift Covid hospitals
