China infrastructure bank gets Aaa-okay – China’s latest business and technology news

The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIIB), crucial to the rollout of Belt and Road infrastructure projects, is “a step closer to issuing its first bonds” this week, Caixin reports. Moody’s Investors Service became on June 29 the first international credit ratings firm to give the AIIB an Aaa rating, the “the same level as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and reflecting its view that the AIIB’s debt would be of the highest quality and carry minimal risk,” Caixin says.

The bank, which opened for business in January 2016 with $100 billion in capital, has been ambitious in its operations even as it awaits formal credit ratings approval. Caixin compares the AIIB with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), noting that while that bank waited two years after establishment to make its first loan, the AIIB has already “given the go-ahead to 16 projects involving $2.5 billion in loans and equity investment.”

• Fast food
  Investors spit out Yum China after earnings report / Caixin
  “Shares of Yum China plunged after the operator of the country’s KFC and Pizza Hut chains reported its latest quarterly results…despite a report that showed the company’s nascent turnaround was taking hold.” Caixin separately reports that Yum China has opened its first Taco Bell in China, offering a localized take on the American chain restaurant’s Mexican-ish food: hot, melted cheese, instead of cold, shredded cheese in the tacos, no rice and beans in the burritos, and menu items such as shrimp avocado rolls and alcoholic beverages.
• Smartphone sales
  Xiaomi hails ‘return to rapid growth’ as it targets 100m phone sales in 2017 / Tech in Asia
• Cancer treatments
  Celgene to take stake in Chinese biotech peer BeiGene / Caixin
  U.S. biopharmaceutical company Celgene will acquire a stake in BeiGene, a Chinese company that makes solid-tumor cancer treatments, which it plans to sell in markets outside Asia.
• Trade and investment
  China, EU bolster greening of global shipping to curb emissions / Bloomberg
  China’s overseas acquisitions recover from doldrums / Financial Times (paywall)
• Economic development
  Chinese ‘wealth clusters’ show how good it is when the government stays out of things / Quartz
• Media
  CCTV, Channel One to launch network with Russian content in China / Hollywood Reporter