Alibaba Ups Stake In YTO Express
YTO Express announced Tuesday evening the sale of an additional 12 percent of its shares, worth 6.6 billion yuan ($970 million), to e-commerce giant Alibaba Group as part of the two companies' ongoing strategic partnership. Alibaba had already held a 10 percent stake in YTO before the deal was announced.
Yu Huijiao and Zhang Xiaojuan, the couple who founded YTO Express, hold 41.65 percent of the company's shares and remain in operational control, according to YTO's statement. The news caused YTO International shares to surge by 13.57 percent at Hong Kong stock market's opening bell on Wednesday.
YTO is China's third-largest express delivery firm by parcel volume, with a 14 percent share of the market in 2019.
Alibaba Group does not currently run a dispatch fleet of its own in China but it has picked up stakes in top express deliver players, including STO Express, Best Inc., ZTO Express and Yunda Express. Its major competitor JD.com has its own delivery platform, JD Logistics.
There were nearly 63 billion parcels sent throughout China in 2019, with revenue in the sector growing 23 percent to 745 billion yuan, according to data from the State Postal Bureau.
BYD Auto's Brazil Battery Plant Up And Running
Chinese electric carmaker BYD Auto launched operations of its lithium iron phosphate battery plant in Manaus, Brazil on Monday. With a $2.7 million investment, BYD estimates that the plant can produce up to 18,000 battery modules annually, The Paper reported.
The new battery plant is currently able to make 48 battery modules per day, said Li Tie, general manager of BYD in Brazil's unit, who estimated that 1,000 battery modules will be completed by the end of September.
Brazil opened its first purely electric express bus system this May – a fleet of twelve 22-meter electric buses bought from BYD. The project, in the city of Sao Jose dos Campos in Sao Paulo state, will also receive the first batch of batteries.
Xi'an-based BYD Auto started opening factories in Brazil to produce electric and solar-energy plug-in units for electric cars and buses in 2014. It has established three plants in Brazil to date.
Since 2017, BYD has been negatively impacted by the reduction of government subsidies for electric vehicles. It announced in May that it would expand it business into Europe, staring with the Norwegian market.
Wuhan To Resume International Flights
The Civil Aviation Administration of Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus outbreak originated in 2019, plans to resume international flights from the middle of this month, Wuhan local media outlet Changjiang Daily reported.
There were 63 international flight routes halted during the seven-month suspension. Since the city emerged from lockdown on April 8, Wuhan Tianhe International Airport has taken measures to maintain some airfreight volume, including opening up 29 freight flight routes, which sent exports to international airports in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Zhengzhou.
Prior to the announcement of resuming flights, several foreign carriers have reportedly applied to the authority to recommence flights connecting Wuhan with Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Hanoi, Sihanouk, Tokyo, Jakarta and Singapore.
As of August, Wuhan Tianhe International Airport has resumed 73 domestic flight routes, while absorbing nearly 90 percent of the passenger volume compared with the same period of last year, according to the administration.
Snack Legend Faces E-commerce Dilemma
Three Squirrels, a domestically listed snack company that found initial success via e-commerce channels, announced disappointing earnings in its first-half fiscal report, indicating the company faces a dilemma in its heavy dependence upon e-commerce platforms.
Despite raking in 5.252 billion yuan ($770 million) in revenues and receiving 56.58 million yuan in government subsidies during the period, Three Squirrels' first-half profit was just 188 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 29.51 percent.
Analysts said the major problem lies in Three Squirrels' continual dependence upon the e-commerce sector and lacking multiple sales channels, while the operation fees and commission fees charged by e-commerce platforms has been increasing in recent years.
The company spent nearly 400 million yuan in operational fees on e-commerce platforms including JD.com and Tmall in the first half, a rise of 51.3 percent compared with one year earlier. Three Squirrels relied on e-commerce for 84 percent of its sales, while its brick-and-mortar store sales accounted for less than 9 percent .
Founded in 2012 and listed in 2019, Three Squirrels became a legend by selling $14 million in nuts within the first 20 minutes of its appearance on the Tmall e-commerce platform.
Japanese Securities Firm Forms JV In Beijing
Japanese brokerage and investment bank Daiwa Securities Group will launch a majority-owned joint venture in Beijing to provide brokerage and securities underwriting services, Beijing Daily reported.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) recently gave Daiwa approval to set up the JV, which is 51 percent-owned by the Japanese company and 33 percent-owned by Beijing State-owned Capital Operation and Management Center. The remaining 16 percent is held by an investment arm of Beijing's Xicheng District. The registered capital of the new venture is 1 billion yuan ($146.48 million).
After retreating from owning 33 percent of a JV in China in 2014, Daiwa chose to return as China recently further opened its financial sector, allowing foreign institutions to own majority stakes in securities firms, mutual funds and insurance companies, Reuters reported.
Last November, the other Japanese investment giant, Nomura Holdings, Inc., received a business license from the CSRC for its majority-owned securities joint venture, which was founded with 2 billion yuan in registered capital.
