IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Aircraft group buys US service provider

Aircraft Recycling International, a unit of China Aircraft Leasing Group, has acquired US aviation service provider Universal Asset Management Inc. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Aircraft Recycling, Universal will be responsible for its aircraft recycling business overseas - and will be part of its global distribution platform, according to an announcement made by China Aircraft.

Uber rivals team up in a new alliance

Uber Technologies Inc is facing another alliance of rivals as smaller operators team up across different regions to provide ride-hailing services. Careem Inc, a Dubai-based service valued at about $1 billion (billion euros; 930 million euros; 800 million), will partner with China's Yidao Yongche and share resources, according to a statement. They will use London-based startup Splyt Technologies to coordinate their fleets and payments, so that passengers using only one app can travel abroad and use the drivers of the others without downloading new software.

Global giants invest in Sichuan

Several Fortune 500 multinational companies reached agreements on March 16 with Sichuan province on 20 investment projects worth 21.8 billion yuan ($3.16 billion; 2.9 billion euros; 2.5 billion). The projects include a commercial center by France's second-largest retailer Auchan Group, a biomass material production base by US science and engineering major DuPont and a research program on rubber resources led by the Royal Dutch Shell Group, Europe's largest oil group, according to the Sichuan Provincial Investment Promotion Bureau.

China now biggest investor in Suez

China has become the biggest investor in Egypt's Suez Canal Area Development Project, a mega initiative showcasing a win-win partnership between the two countries, said Ahmed Darwish, chairman of the Suez Canal Economic Zone, or SCZone. The aim of the giant project, launched in 2014, is to increase the role of the Suez Canal region in international trading and to develop the three canal cities of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said. China's TEDA Group, one of the oldest industrial developers in the region, has seen a steady increase in the number of its development projects and factories since it entered Egypt and established a joint Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in the Ain Sokhna district of the Suez Canal Corridor east of Cairo. "Currently, the Chinese investments are the largest. We highly appreciate the earnestness of our Chinese partners. They were among the first to act as an industrial developer in the zone," the Darwish said.

Belt and Road website launched

The official website of the Belt and Road Initiative - www.yidaiyilu.gov.cn - was launched on March 21, offering information on investment policies and enterprises involved in the initiative, among other topics. The website, called the Belt and Road Portal, has an English version and is operated by the State Information Center. The website aims to offer information in several languages - including Russian, French, Arabic and Spanish - within this year. The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along ancient Silk Road trade routes.

Huawei takes latest phone to Poland

Chinese top smartphone and telecom equipment maker Huawei introduced its latest smartphone version of the P10 to the Polish market on March 20. The introduction of the phone includes the company's Perfect Portrait campaign, which will start on April 1. The Huawei P10 is its first handset to be equipped with a front camera, developed in collaboration with Leica. A key feature of Huawei's P10 is that it enables high-quality portraits.

Huawei Spain to move its head office

Huawei Spain recently confirmed the company would be moving its head office to deal with an expected 50 percent increase in its workforce over the next five years. The company will move to a new headquarters in Madrid's Castellana Norte business park in the second half of this year. The change comes as the result of the continued growth of the company in Spain. Huawei Spain currently has a workforce of more than 1,000, and the company estimates it has indirectly created another 2,000 jobs.

Tencent profit soars, driven by online

Chinese internet services provider Tencent Holdings posted a hefty increase in net profits for 2016, citing its strategy to connect its online services as the main driver. The company behind the WeChat instant-messaging app said the profit attributable to its equity holders for the year ended Dec 31 surged 43 percent to 41 billion yuan ($5.95 billion; 5.5 billion euros; 4.8 billion), from 28.8 billion yuan a year earlier. Revenues swelled 48 percent to 151.9 billion yuan from the previous year's 102.9 billion yuan. The company attributed the growth to smartphone games, social and performance advertising, digital content sales and emerging businesses such as payment-related services. Tencent recommended paying a dividend of HK$0.61 per share ($0.08) for the period, a nearly 30 percent increase from the previous year. WeChat remained China's most-used app in 2016, with QQ - another Tencent platform - taking second place, the China Internet Network Information Center said in January.

China's sharing economy set for big growth

From ride-hailing business to online auctioneers, sharing economy platforms have created a huge market. China's sharing economy will maintain a high 40 percent annual growth rate in the coming years, according to estimates in a report released by the State Information Center. The report, released by the center's sharing economy research branch, predicted the sharing economy's transaction volume will account for over 10 percent of the country's GDP by 2020, and that the ratio will continue to grow to roughly 20 percent by 2025. China's fast-growing sharing economy will likely generate five to 10 business giants in different sectors over the next decade, according to the report. The report said the new mode of operation brought about by the sharing economy will penetrate various fields, including products, services, capital, knowledge and skills, as well as production capacity. Among them, the sharing of manufacturing capability will be a crucial part of China's industrial upgrade.

Mobike to push its bicycles abroad

China's bicycle-sharing war will spread beyond the country this year, as Mobike plans to more than triple its coverage - to more than 100 cities globally - before the end of the year. Mobike's orange bicycles have become a staple in China since the company started operations last year. It has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from backers including Tencent Holdings, Warburg Pincus, TPG Capital, Temasek Holdings and Foxconn Technology Group. The startup officially begins services on March 21 in Singapore, its first non-Chinese location, where rival Ofo has also expanded.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/24/2017 page24)