| From: richardred | 3/25/2008 12:54:11 AM | | | | | | American Banknote (ABnote) Acquires Keystone Manufacturing (Plastics) Limited
Monday March 24, 1:44 pm ET
Expands into Canadian Card Manufacturing Arena
ABnote Increases Capacity and Broadens Worldwide Footprint
FORT LEE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--American Banknote Corporation, parent of the ABnote Group, announced today that it has acquired Keystone Manufacturing (Plastics) Ltd., of Toronto, Canada, for an undisclosed amount of cash.
The acquisition of Keystone, one of Canada’s premier plastic card companies, provides the world-wide ABnote Group access to Keystone’s richly diversified suite of customers, along with the ability to take advantage of Keystone’s highly regarded reputation in smart cards. In addition, ABnote announced Bud Kronenberg would remain at the helm of the company together with the current management team.
As a result of the transaction, Keystone will gain immediate access to a wide range of new technologies including Arthur Blank’s “green” initiatives. Keystone will supplement its existing product lines through ABnote’s global strength in secure card issuance and cutting-edge identification products, as well as through its complimentary secure printing, warehousing, fulfillment services and information technology.
“We are extremely proud to be able to acquire a company of the quality, experience and stature of Keystone,” stated Steven Singer, Chairman and Chief Executive of American Banknote Corporation. “Keystone allows us to enter Canada at a very exciting time as the banking community migrates towards EMV and as cross border identification becomes paramount between the USA and Canada”.
“Keystone has built a unique brand in Canada - being able to leverage the dominant skill sets and exceptional knowledge base that ABnote has attained means that Keystone will be able to become an even more significant force in the Canadian marketplace”, stated Bud Kronenberg, CEO of Keystone. “It is with a great sense of pride that my team joins forces with a market leader”.
About American Banknote Corporation
American Banknote Corporation is a holding company and the parent of the ABnote Group, which operates through its subsidiary companies: American Banknote S.A. in Brazil, Leigh Mardon in Australia, ABnote NZ in New Zealand, CPS Technologies in France, ABnote Europe, s.r.o. in the Czech Republic, and American Bank Note Company and Arthur Blank & Co. in the United States. For more information on American Banknote, visit www.americanbanknote.com or call 201-592-3400. For more information on all of Keystone’s card products, visit www.keystoneplastics.com or call 416-293-3842.
biz.yahoo.com |
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| From: richardred | 3/25/2008 7:32:16 AM | | | | | | EXCLUSIVE - UAE, Qatar to set up $2 bln acquisition fund
Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:44pm IST
By Simon Webb
DUBAI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi government-owned IPIC and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) will establish a $2 billion fund for global acquisitions, the managing director of IPIC said on Tuesday.
"We plan to invest in all sectors, including oil and petrochemicals," Khadem al-Qubaisi told Reuters by telephone in an interview.
The fund could thus mark a new direction for the International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), which until now has limited its investments to the energy sector.
IPIC is an investment vehicle for the government of Abu Dhabi, which controls more than 90 percent of the United Arab Emirates' oil reserves.
QIA is Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. Its assets stand at around $60 billion, according to an estimate by Standard Chartered.
"We will look at any opportunities where we can make money and add value. That could be anywhere -- the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States," Qubaisi said.
The new fund has yet to identify any specific targets, he said.
IPIC and QIA will each invest $1 billion in the fund initially, Qubaisi said. Investment will be leveraged to maximise acquisition potential, and the fund will be operating in about six months, he said.
IPIC and QIA investment in the fund will likely be increased later.
"We will be conservative with the first investments and build carefully," he said. "You cannot be aggressive from day one."
Sovereign funds from the Middle East, Asia, Russia and China have poured billions of dollars into large stakes in Wall Street firms, arousing concern among U.S. lawmakers that politics may be influencing investments.
U.S. and Abu Dhabi officials agreed last week on a set of principles for the funds to keep politics out of decisions.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is thought to be the largest sovereign fund in the world, controlling assets of over $800 billion. The UAE is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, and its government has reaped the windfall from a five-fold increase in crude prices since 2002.
Funds including QIA and ADIA have helped rescue struggling Western banks in recent months.
in.reuters.com |
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| From: richardred | 3/25/2008 7:43:10 AM | | | | | | Bank of China says to pursue M&A abroad in 2008
Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:44am EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - Bank of China (3988.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) (601988.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), the country's premier foreign exchange lender, expects growth of new loans in 2008 to roughly match last year's 13 percent, and said it intended to actively pursue overseas acquisitions this year.
The bank on Tuesday posted slim fourth-quarter net profit growth of 3.9 percent after booking $1.3 billion of 2007 pro
reuters.com |
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| From: richardred | 3/25/2008 7:45:11 AM | | | | | | UPDATE 1-Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions
Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:17am EDT
March 25 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 0900 GMT on Tuesday.
(For Reuters columns on deals, click on [DEALTALK/])
** ArcelorMittal SA (ISPA.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) (MT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest steelmaker, said it will increase to 49.95 percent its stake in Noble International Ltd (NOBL.O: Quote, Profile, Research), a provider of parts, component assemblies and services to the auto industry. [nWEN4651]
** Packaging firm Ess Dee Aluminium's (ESDA.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) founder said he has pledged 22.5 percent of his stake to IL&FS Trust for 1 billion rupees as a guarantee for the revival of ailing India Foils (IFLS.BO: Quote, Profile, Research). [nBOM31838]
** Fuels and petrochemicals group Sasol (SOLJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research) will sell a 10 percent stake to black investors in South Africa's biggest black economic empowerment transaction to date worth 25.9 billion rand ($3.19 billion). To read more, please double click on [nWEB9530]
** Oil tanker group Frontline (FRO.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) said it and firms directly controlled by its main owner John Fredriksen have a 5.2 percent stake in Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and a forward contract on 4.4 percent more. [nL25161775]
** Inchcape Plc (INCH.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said it bought remaining 24.9 percent stake in its St Petersburg business, in continued expansion into Russia, for a total cash consideration of $54.8 million from existing facilities. [nWLB8941]
** Polish insulin maker Bioton BOTN.WA said it had put on hold its acquisition of Ukrainian firm Indar after it learnt the Ukrainian state had lost control over the stake it had sought. [nL25273784] (Compiled by Neetha Mahadevan in Bangalore)
reuters.com |
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| From: richardred | 3/25/2008 7:56:17 AM | | | | | | Chinalco may spend over $4 bln for acquisitions
Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:55pm EDT
HONG KONG, March 25 (Reuters) - China's state-owned aluminium giant Chinalco may spend 20-30 billion yuan ($2.82-4.23 billion) or more this year on acquisitions at home and abroad, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.
"The group will focus on resources acquisition and control both in China and overseas," Chinalco's president, Xiao Yaqing, told the paper. "The investment may be even bigger than between 20-30 billion yuan."
Xiao did not disclose specific targets but told the paper non-ferrous metals would be the main focus.
Chinalco last month teamed up with Alcoa (AA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) from the United States to buy a $14 billion stake in Rio Tinto Plc (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) in what is seen as an attempt to prevent the mining giant from being taken over by its rival, BHP Billiton (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research).
Xiao said last week that Chinalco had assets worth more than 300 billion yuan ($42.26 billion) and that it had hired advisers for possible domestic and foreign acquisitions involving base metal resources.
Chinalco is the parent of Aluminium Corp of China (Chalco) (601600.SS: Quote, Profile, Research) (2600.HK: Quote, Profile, Research).
(Reporting by Nao Nakanishi; editing by Ken Wills)
reuters.com |
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| From: richardred | 3/25/2008 7:58:46 AM | | | | | | China Life buys Visa IPO shares for US$300m
Natalie Chiu
Mar 25, 2008
China Life (SEHK: 2628, announcements, news) Insurance has invested US$300 million in Visa's initial public offering, making it the first mainland insurer to make a pre-listing investment in a multinational company....
scmp.com |
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| To: richardred who wrote (2029) | 3/25/2008 8:11:47 AM | | From: richardred | | | | China Firms Sink Roots Across the Globe
Sunday, March 23, 2008
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writer
Amid the torrent of clothes, electronics and toys surging out of China comes a little-noticed export: international companies.
For centuries, individual Chinese have sought their fortunes abroad, creating Chinatowns around their restaurants and shops. Now, Chinese firms are going global, pushed by a government turned capitalist, pulled by untapped markets and armed with bundles of money from a thriving economy back home.
Auto plants are popping up in Latin America. A sprawling commodity bazaar promises a provincial Swedish city new life. A car parts distributor is snapping up ailing companies in the U.S. Rust Belt, a TV factory hums in South Africa and a high-tech firm is landing contracts to revamp the Persian Gulf's telecommunication networks.
Just as the earlier arrival of Japanese companies changed U.S. manufacturing, over time Chinese companies could affect how their Western rivals approach innovation, competition and business itself.
"We not only consider ourselves pioneers," says Sean Chen, who at 26 is overseeing the construction of a $100 million electrical parts plant and industrial park in the American South. "We also consider ourselves explorers."
Chen and his fiancee, Joy Chen _ both took American first names _ moved from Shanghai to Atlanta to set up shop for General Protecht Group Inc., a company controlled by his father. While the goal is profits, Sean Chen and his father view the venture almost as a social experiment _ its aim, he said through an interpreter, is to marry the best Chinese and American work practices.
"I want to have the efficiency and execution normally shown by the American employees and the brotherhood that a Chinese company normally shows," Sean Chen says. "There are capitalists and there are socialists and I want to see whether they can get along."
The Chinese corporate presence is still small overseas, but it's growing fast:
_ Chinese companies invested more than $30 billion in foreign firms from 1996 to 2005, nearly one-third in 2004-05 alone, according to an analysis by Usha Haley, a professor of international business at the University of New Haven. Computer maker Lenovo Group helped launch the frenzy in December 2004 by announcing it would acquire IBM Corp.'s personal computer unit for $1.75 billion.
_ In the United States and Canada, Chinese firms now have about 3,500 investment projects, compared to 1,500 five years ago, according to an estimate by Maryville University professor Ping Deng. Large state-owned companies jumped ahead; medium and small private firms are catching up.
Total investment in the U.S. is between $4 billion and $7 billion, Ping estimates. In Europe, Chinese acquisitions last year alone totaled $563.3 million, according to research company Dealogic.
_ Last year, 29 Chinese firms debuted on U.S. stock exchanges, just two shy of the total for the previous three years combined, according to the Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
_ The number of U.S. visas issued to Chinese executives and managers who transfer to U.S. posts within their companies nearly doubled to 2,043 between fiscal years 2004 and 2007. The current fiscal year is on pace to top that, U.S. State Department statistics show.
Chinese businesses are not just establishing offices and factories overseas. They also are developing and selling products under their own brands, rather than simply supplying Western firms in search of cheap manufacturing.
The competition may make it harder for American and European firms to milk early profits from cutting-edge products before reducing prices and releasing them to the mass market. Vulnerable sectors include high-definition TVs, portable DVD players, medical technology, and perhaps even cars, according to Peter Williamson, a professor of international management at the University of Cambridge with extensive China experience.
At the Detroit Auto Show in January, one mid-sized SUV from China with goodies including a leather interior was priced at just $14,000 _ less than half what many comparable cars cost. Models could be available by early next year in nine states.
Chinese firms can use their low-cost manufacturing advantage to pile on additional features. And they can do that by copying taste-making Western firms, circumventing the expense of product development. If the quality is high enough, the strategy can be devastating.
"It will pull to pieces the profit models of their competitors," Williamson says. "It's a classic case of attacking your competitor where you know they're reluctant to respond, because it's very costly."
The dynamic recalls how Japanese auto makers forced their U.S. competitors to make options such as power windows and air conditioning standard.
Unlike the Japanese, whose 1980s arrival in the U.S. was at first greeted as a threat, Chinese businesses are being courted by states including Michigan, California, Illinois and Georgia.
Not that all arms are open.
Congressional scrutiny has dogged several investments, including the billions of dollars that government-owned funds are investing in top Wall Street institutions. National security concerns have scuttled several deals, including the attempted 2005 purchase of oil giant Unocal Corp. and a $2.2 billion bid to buy the tech company 3Com in February.
In the Swedish coastal city of Kalmar, labor union and media criticism has been the backdrop for delayed Chinese plans to open a hotel and wholesale warehouse for Chinese-made commodities. Project manager Angie Qian tromps around, trying to get things done at the speed she was used to in Shanghai.
"China is developing very quickly and so people work very fast and don't plan very far ahead," says Qian, herself a study in constant motion. "In Sweden everything takes a much longer time."
The $160 million project, going up on the site of a shuttered chocolate factory, could help revive a city abandoned by car maker Volvo and train maker Bombardier Transportation.
It wouldn't be the first project of its kind. Dubai boasts an enormous Dragon Mart shopping mall and residential complex; Chinese centers with other backers have opened in Eastern Europe, Italy, England and Russia.
But the Kalmar project faces problems.
Fanerdun Group, the company bankrolling the project, has reportedly not received Chinese government approval to transfer funding from China to Sweden. The company has said it will pay wages of Chinese workers into Chinese bank accounts instead of Swedish accounts.
The national construction workers' union and local media have criticized Fanerdun for not paying some of the Chinese workers who helped prepare the site at all. The issue has delayed construction.
Elsewhere, miscalculations have led to early, and sometimes spectacular, failures. There was the Splendid China theme park in Florida that no one really visited. A group of investors never recovered from the fiasco of trying to evict poor tenants from the downtown Los Angeles hotel they planned to refurbish.
Chinese companies that wither often see the first branch as a trophy, and neglect the long-term strategy that can lead to greater profits, according to business professor Ping. He based his survey on 400 Chinese companies doing business in the U.S. and Europe.
Drastic differences in business culture also can hobble a venture. Western managers can demand more authority than Chinese bosses are accustomed to, and official directives can alienate workers.
For all their energy and drive, many Chinese managers and executives lack formal training. That is changing.
At UCLA's Anderson School of Management, for example, Chinese applications more than doubled from 87 in 2005 to 180 in 2007. The 2007 class had 14 Chinese students, the most in the school's history.
Wife and husband Stella Li and Steven Zhu quit high-profile careers in China to study in Los Angeles. Li is slated to graduate this spring _ Zhu got his MBA last year and landed at Google doing data-driven sales analysis. Both see an opportunity to gain a sophistication in finance and strategy they couldn't get working back home.
"We definitely want to take all the experience and the things we learned in the U.S. back to China," Li said. "But short term, we would like to get more exposure in business here."
Chinese firms are still learning the kinds of data-driven market analysis, branding and other business practices that are commonplace in the West.
"What's scary to think of is when they marry cost consciousness with U.S.-style just-in-time inventory management," says Charles Freeman, a China specialist at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, who recalls talking to a cell phone maker that was storing 100 million headsets behind its factory.
Few Chinese companies have been in the U.S. longer than the American subsidiary of the auto parts giant Wanxiang Group, which incorporated in 1993. The founder of the home company is one of China's richest men. His son-in-law, Pin Ni, led the Chicago-area subsidiary from cheap parts supplier up the value chain by buying or working with companies that were distressed _ owing to competition from China.
Wanxiang America Inc. has been welcomed for saving manufacturing jobs. Illinois has proclaimed a Wanxiang Day and Michigan offered the company subsidies.
Pin talks exactly like what he is _ an executive who's part of a multinational. It's all about core competence and optimizing strength and horizontal integration. He casts himself as a matchmaker who spots what disparate firms do best to create as efficient a manufacturing process as possible.
"Even today you want to say, is there enough Chinese companies in the United States?" Pin asks. "I would say no.
foxnews.com |
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