Daimler in deal with Deripaska to produce more cars in Russia June 21, 2012 DAIMLER has announced a major new deal that will see its vehicles manufactured in Russia for the first time. The contract with the German car firm will see hundreds of vehicles made at the main plant of Russia’s GAZ company. Daimler is to invest more than €100m and Gaz €90m in the project. Start of [...]
China is set to fund UK nuclear June 19, 2012 CHINA may soon have a major stake in one of the UK’s biggest nuclear projects after two Chinese state firms teamed up with Western players to bid for the £15bn Horizon joint venture. Areva and Westinghouse are believed to have picked separate Chinese nuclear firms to help fund bids for Horizon, which was put on [...]
What Britain must do to win back investors from a surging Germany June 19, 2012 BRITAIN is on the verge of losing its foreign direct investment (FDI) crown. After a 15 year record as the leading European destination, the investment tide has begun to flow away. While the UK remains Europe’s top destination for inward projects, we will lose this crown to Germany, within two years, unless action is taken. [...]
Cheap government credit isn’t the magic bullet for our future growth June 17, 2012 SOMETIMES life sucks. Sometimes, one day we are active athletic people, running and playing squash, and the next we experience a bad back injury and cannot run fast or twist any more. When such things happen, it is tempting to believe that there must be a solution, some magic bullet that will restore us quickly [...]
The Brics start to look wobbly as emerging market growth slows June 17, 2012 AS INDIA looks set to lose its investment grade rating, are the Bric nations starting to tumble? The last ten years have seen investors flocking to the vaunted opportunities available in the markets of the Bric grouping of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Over that time, Bric indices have almost quadrupled their gains and their [...]
Carlsberg plans giant Chinese brewery build June 13, 2012 CARLSBERG is to build a giant brewery in China to tap growth in the world’s largest beer market, as the Danish group looks to expand outside sluggish European markets. The world’s fourth-biggest brewer will sign the deal on Friday to coincide with the visit to Denmark of Chinese President Hu Jintao, and spend 4bn Danish [...]
Anthony Bolton’s $750m China fund has lost a fifth of its value June 12, 2012 ANTHONY Bolton’s Fidelity China Special Situations fund has lost a fifth of its value since its launch in Asia in 2010, lagging the wider Chinese stock market, it was revealed in an annual report yesterday. Bolton, one of the UK’s best known and most successful fund managers, said in the report that he continued to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 6, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Mittal reduces China steel ambitions Lakshmi Mittal has signalled a dramatic scaling back of ArcelorMittal’s ambitions to expand in China’s steel industry through an agreement to cut the company’s stake in one of the country’s top metals producers. The chairman, chief executive and main owner of the world’s biggest steelmaker had hoped to [...]
Producers of whisky look to middle classes in the BRICs June 6, 2012 WHENEVER Scottish nationalists are selling the case for independence, they peddle the myth that some clapped-out oil fields in the North Sea will bring decades of guaranteed prosperity. They would be better pinning their flimsy economic arguments on a liquid that is being exported in ever greater quantities: Scotch whisky. Diageo’s decision to invest £1bn [...]
Western exporters threatened by softening Chinese demand June 6, 2012 BRITAIN is well behind its competitors in taking advantage of China’s impressive growth over the last decade, a top economist said yesterday, and it “will not be easy” for UK firms and the government to rectify that as China’s import growth begins to slow. China’s growth has been largely investment led in the past decade, [...]