Welcome to the 59th installment of the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, a weekly podcast that brings you the most important business stories of the week from China’s top source for business and financial news. Produced by Kaiser Kuo of our Sinica Podcast, it features a business news roundup, plus conversations with Caixin reporters and editors.
This week:
- We note that China’s central bank is set to appoint two new deputy governors in an effort to bring in more expertise to tackle systemic financial risks.
- We learn that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is preparing to revise rules to crack down on the practice known as a “reverse takeover,” or “backdoor listing,” as part of efforts to clean up the market, improve the quality of listed companies, and offer better protection to investors.
- We hear that Medlinker, a Chinese social networking platform for doctors, has become the country’s latest unicorn with a new fundraising round that boosts its valuation to more than $1 billion.
- We find out that Chinese authorities are closing the loopholes that have allowed film and TV stars to minimize their tax payments after a furor over A-lister Fan Bingbing’s finances brought shady practices into the limelight.
- We discuss Starbucks’s ambition to enter China’s booming food-delivery sector by partnering with Alibaba’s on-demand delivery service, Ele.me.
- We discover that Heineken is spending $3 billion to acquire a 40 percent stake in the owner of China’s biggest beer-maker, ramping up its efforts to tap into the world’s largest beer market.
In addition, we talk with David Kirton, reporter for Caixin Global, about Germany’s move to block Chinese company Yantai Taihai Group from buying a local producer of specialized machinery tools, which is seen as the latest sign that Berlin is toughening its stance on Chinese investments in strategic and security-related sectors. We also chat with Doug Young, managing editor of Caixin Global, about Google’s rumored return to China and the many controversies surrounding it.
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