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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Mukesh Ambani to pen RIL’s polyester-to-petrochem story

HE IS known as a man of few words as much as for his execution skills of mammoth projects, but industrialist Mukesh Ambani will now put his thoughts and business philosophy into words in a new avatar, as that of a writer. The book, expected to hit the shelves early next fiscal, would be the first by Ambani and is likely to be published by global publishing major Penguin, according to sources.
    Incidentally, Mr Ambani, chairman of India's most valued corporate house Reliance Industries, was ranked on Thursday as the richest Indian, for the third year in a row, by business magazine Forbes. When contacted, an RIL spokesperson did not offer any comments and queries sent to Penguin India were unanswered.
    Sources, however, said the book would dwell upon the growth chart of the polyester-to-petrochemicals RIL group as also the business philosophy of
the biggest corporate house of the country, as seen by its chairman.
    Mr Ambani may give some insights into how the Reliance group grew into India's biggest entity, but might not dwell into the personal space of one of the most talked-about Indian business families. In 2007, on her 75th birthday, Ambani family matriarch Kokilaben brought out a pictorial biography on the life of her husband the late Dhirubhai Ambani.
    Books on Reliance group has always sparked intense interest in corporate circles, but so far there have not been any authorised published piece. In 1998, undivided Reliance had to move court to
stop the publication of 'The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani' in India. However, a new book by the same author, Hamish McDonald, 'Ambani & Sons' was released here this month. None of the two works were authorised by the Ambanis. Writing about Mukesh Ambani, Forbes India magazine said that he ended a long-running feud with younger sibling Anil in May and scrapped their non-compete pact.
    "...jumped into telecom, paying $1 billion for wireless broadband firm Infotel. His Reliance Industries, India's most valuable company, is investing in shale gas assets," Forbes added.
    Mukesh, the elder son of Dhirubhai, joined the group in 1981. A Chemical Engineer from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from Stanford University, USA, he initiated Reliance's backward integration journey from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals, petroleum refining and going up-stream into oil and gas exploration and production.

Tata Steel bags process technology patent, may out-license to rival cos

TATA Steel has bagged a commercial patent on a process technology widely used for developing iron at steel plants. The steel major may consider licensing the technology to rival companies.
    Tata Steel recently signed an agreement with Jyoti Cero Rubber to commercialise a patented technology for hybrid rollers used in sinter plants, with potential revenues of over 1 crore annually by licensing it out over the next three years.
    "This is the first patent licensed to a third party for commer
cial production in Tata Steel," Tata Steel senior manager (intellectual property) BK Bhuyan told ET. "While the Tisco Direct Reduction was probably one of the first, it was licensed out inhouse to group company Tata Sponge," he added.
    Tata Steel's latest patent per
tains to sinter plant operations. In the present innovation, the idler rollers of the conveyor belt, which is frequently prone to damages, is coated with a unique combination of polymer and ceramic material. This gives it resistance from wear and tear and low friction. Such coated idlers have a long life. Interestingly, this could find wide application in mines and collieries too.
    "We are looking at a potentially large market. Depending on the success of this partnership, we could look at licensing it to others too. This technology has wide applications in mines where similar conveyor belts are used," Mr Bhuyan said.

    Through valuation and commercialisation of its latest IP, as on August 31, 2010, Tata Steel's IPR status — including patents and copyrights but excluding trademarks — contains 454 applications filed with another 266 granted. "A commercial patent gives it virtual acceptance. It completes the cycle from innovation to market and is a milestone for any organisation, especially Indian companies looking at using IP as a strategic tool for business advantage," said K Subodh Kumar, prinicipal counsellor and head at Andhra Pradesh Technology Development and Promotion Confederation of Indian Industry.

Maruti expects Sept sales tally to be its best-ever

INDIA'S LARGEST AUTO CO MAY CLOCK 33% SALES GROWTH; HIND MOTORS TO TAP CONTRACT MANUFACTURING

 MARUTI Suzuki, the country's largest carmaker, is expecting sales to grow 32-33% in September over the yearago period, its chairman said on Thursday, a day ahead of announcing the actual tally.
    Maruti expects to clock higher sales in September, compared to August when its domestic sales rose 32.5% to 92,674 units, an all-time high for a single month. Maruti Suzuki scrip rose 0.7% to close at 1,440.95 at BSE in line with the 30-stock benchmark Sensex.
    Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava said September could be the company's best month ever and growth could be higher than the consolidated 27% achieved in the first five months
of the cur
rent fiscal, beginning April. "The demand is robust but capacity constraint is still pulling us back to achieve even higher sales for the rest of the fiscal," he said.
    The company that remains the largest car seller in India, despite losing market share, has vehicle delivery period of up to six months on most of its popular cars, such as Dzire sedan and Wagon R hatchback, as it
is unable to meet demand. Maruti Suzuki is looking to increase its monthly production by 10% to around 1.1 lakh cars from October by tweaking operations at its four existing plants to meet consumer demand, said Mr Bhargava.
    The company expects to sell 12 lakh vehicles (including exports) in the current fiscal, ending March 2011, from the 10.2 lakh clocked in the previous year. Maruti Suzuki is aiming to take its annual manufacturing capacity to 13 lakh cars by March 2012, before its two new plants come into operation at Manesar after 2013-14. The company's total installed capacity would go be
yond 17.5 lakh cars in four years, when the two new plants commence operations.
    Although it remains bullish on the domestic market, exports are likely to decline as its largest market Europe is yet to show signs of improvement in demand. Maruti Suzuki's exports declined 18.4% to 12,117 units in August 2010 over the year-ago
period. This is partly due to a drop in demand from Nissan Motor which sources Maruti's A-Star model, which is rebranded and sold as Pixo in Europe and other o v e r s e a s markets. Nissan will source around 30,000 units this fiscal, against 51,000 units last year.


Tuesday, September 21, 2010

SENSEX SALUTES GANESHA

Mumbai: On a day when the collapse of a foot-overbridge in the national capital resounded around the world, there was considerably more uplifting news from the financial capital. Two days after the beginning of the 12-day Ganpati puja, the BSE sensex had crossed 19,000. It touched a new 32-month peak in intraday trade on every following day. And on the penultimate day of the festivities in honour of the god of good fortune and prosperity, Dalal Street once again breached the 20,000 mark.
    It took the sensex only seven trading sessions to go from 19,000 to 20,000. It is 32 months since it was last at 20k—on January 17, 2008, just as the tsunami of the US sub-prime crisis began submerging global markets. Not to be outdone, the NSE nifty also crossed the 6,000 mark on Tuesday, a new high since January 2008.

Buy, Sell Or Hold?
    
Amid the cheer, many investors are also starting to feel nervous. Is the market overheating? Is there a correction coming? Should I book profit and sell now, or hold on? Questions abound. TOI talks to market experts and fund managers to figure out the best strategy for retail investors. P 27 

THRILLING 20-20
    
The sensex scaled Mount 20k on Tuesday after 32 months. It was last at this level on Jan 17, 2008, just as the global financial crisis began to hit India
    
Total investor wealth now 71.4 lakh cr, 2.2 lakh cr more than on Jan 17, 2008. But it's 3 lakh cr off BSE's record market cap of 74.4 lakh cr on Jan 7, 2008
On October 27, 2008, sensex hit lowest intra-day mark of 7,697 after touching 21k. Since then, total investor wealth of 44.8 lakh crore has been created.
FIIs have pumped in net $33 billion

Since Jan 17, 2008
Rupee has fallen 16% against dollar to 45.6 from 39.31
Domestic gold prices have zoomed 70% to 19,100/10 gm from 11,250
International gold prices have jumped 45% to $1,282/ounce from $883
Crude oil prices have dipped 13% to
$78/barrel from $90
Among major indices, only Brazil's Bovespa (up 20%) has outperformed sensex and nifty. China's Shanghai Composite is off 50% from January 2008 levels. Dow Jones is down 12%, Nikkei 30% and FTSE 5%

$22bn
Net FII inflows since Jan 17, 2008

$2bn
Net MF outflows in same period
More positives this time around
    Ironically, though these landmarks were attained during the city's most popular local festival, the run-up was almost solely driven by inflows from foreign funds.
    On Tuesday, the sensex opened firm and crossed 20,000 within minutes, as expected by the majority on the Street. Profit-taking at higher levels pulled it back a bit but an end-of-session rally helped it close at 20,002, up 95 points over Monday's level.
    The rally could help bring more retail investors to the market, brokers and dealers pointed out. After all, since its most recent low of Rs 26.3 lakh crore in March 2009, investors' wealth has gone up by about Rs 45 lakh crore with BSE's market capitalisation now at Rs 71.4 lakh crore. In dollar terms, at $1.6 trillion, India's market cap now exceeds even markets like Germany and Australia, both at $1.3 trillion and Switzerland, at $1.1 trillion now, according to Bloomberg data.
    In the global pecking order, India is currently ranked eighth, closing in fast on markets like France ($1.7 trilion) and Canada ($1.8 trillion).
    The northward journey of the sensex is also attracting attention in Delhi's North Block. Calling the index "always a little bit unpredictable'', finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said he was happy that for the first time after January 2008, it has crossed the 20K mark. Finance secretary Ashok Chawla said although the index's rise reflected investors' confidence in the economy, the ministry and market watchdog Sebi were keeping a close watch "to see if at any stage there is any sign of overheating, which we don't find at this moment''.
    Behind the euphoria on the street and reassuring voices from the government, retail investors, who have not forgotten the harsh lessons of 2008 and 2009, are asking "Is it different this time?'' The answer is tilted more towards the positives than the negatives, say market players. "Firstly, the corporate sector has grown about 30% since the last time the sensex had crossed 20K. So scrips are cheaper now,'' said Abhay Aima, head-equities and private banking, HDFC Bank. "Secondly, the Indian economy is showing good growth. And lastly, there is no euphoria among domestic investors, but it's there among foreign investors,'' Aima added.





Wednesday, September 15, 2010

SBI in talks with RBI for holding co: Bhatt

O P BHATT CHAIRMAN, STATE BANK OF INDIA INDIA'S largest lender, State Bank of India, is in talks with the banking regulator, Reserve Bank of India, to form a holding company that will control the equity of the bank, its associates and also subsidiaries — a move which could lead to a more efficient use of capital.
    The SBI Group, which controls close to one-fourth of the country's market for loans and deposits, is the most "ripe", or wellpositioned, among banks to go in
for a holding company structure, its chairman Om Prakash Bhatt said in an interview with ET on Wednesday. SBI had pitched for this model a few years ago with both RBI and the government, which is now its dominant shareholder.
A holding company structure will obviate the bank's need to set aside capital for all its enterprises unlike now, when the lender has to assess the risks and assign capital when it ventures into new lines of businesses.
"For us, a holding company makes sense.
But how we move to a holding company structure and how we transfer ownership and in terms of act and taxation issues are to be seen," he told ET.
    The structure could be one in which the equity of the parent bank and all the associate banks and subsidiaries could be
housed. The government's stake of over 50% could be transferred to the holding company, but this would call for changes in the SBI Act. SBI scales down global buy plan
IN THE four years that he headed SBI, where he had started his career three decades ago, the bank has managed to claw back on its market share, especially in the retail segment. The bank is now the country's biggest home loan provider, having pipped mortgage lender — HDFC — through an aggressive home loan scheme, dubbed as a gimmick initially by its rival.
    "The elephant is dancing," Mr Bhatt says of the bank, which has assets of over 10 lakh crore and a countrywide network of over 14,000 branches, by a wide stretch the largest.
    SBI is now seeking to raise capital of up to Rs20,000 crore through a rights offering to bolster its capital. On the way, however, the bank has chosen to scale down its ambitions of buying a fairly large-sized global peer. "Buying for buying sake does not make sense, and I don't think that SBI is ready to buy a large foreign bank given the management challenges it poses," he said.

Obama’s strident rhetoric begins to bite Bangalore

IT's Big 3 Wipro, Infosys & TCS Saw Deal Postponements In The Past Quarter

AMERICA'S worsening economic climate and incendiary political rhetoric could end up hurting the fortunes of India's $50-billion outsourcing industry as US firms start avoiding overseas contracts fearing a backlash from skittish politicians.
    At least six customers of India's top three IT companies — Wipro, Infosys and TCS — have postponed decisions on new contracts in the past quarter, triggering concern in Bangalore and Mumbai, the headquarters of the big Indian IT firms.

    "What we see from customers is that they are committing short term; they also reserve the right to cancel, so clearly, everybody is playing the short-term game at this point in time," said S 'Kris' Gopalakrishnan, chief executive of India's secondbiggest software exporter, Infosys.
    The trend, if it continues, will be a body blow to the outsourcing industry, just recovering from the worst slow
down in its history. Hiring in IT companies has picked up in the past few quarters and so has earnings growth. But another round of weakness, bound to be triggered if American firms pull the plug on new orders, will definitely damage confidence and financial performance, experts said.
    "Customers are not pulling any trigger yet on big contracts, and unfortunately, the November election is making them even more cautious," John C McCarthy, vice-president and principal analyst at US-based Forrester Research said. Indian firms, he added, were hoping that customers in the US would start doling out large contracts after the European debt crisis, which
didn't happen. Large banks and manufacturing companies in the US are wary about demand for their products, and have been trimming their payroll to boost profits. This has resulted in high unemployment rates of 9.6%, the biggest slump in hiring since the post World War-II era.
    US economic growth too has slipped to about 1.6% in the second quarter, less than the 3.7% growth in the first quarter. A group of economists recently cut GDP forecast for both 2010 and 2011 and predicted that unemployment will stay high.
    "They are not actually increasing their own recruitment, which means that unemployment unfortunately will continue to be high,"
Mr Gopalakrishnan added.
    Since the recession began in December 2007, the US economy has shed 8.4 million jobs, and according to a research note put out by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, up to 2,94,000 new jobs will need to be added every month for bringing the unemployment rate below 8%.
    Infosys, which counts Bank of
America and several American retailers among its top customers, is among the first ones to flag the bumps ahead for the sector.
    "The customers are making it clear that if we have to pull back, we will pull back suddenly," said Mr Gopalakrishnan. According to Mr Mc-Carthy, the uncertainty along with the November elections could affect the IT budgets of customers next year.
    "The momentum we saw until first quarter has slowed, we could now see the budgets grow by 2% instead of 3% forecast earlier," he added.
Cos now focus on short-term results
    ANALYSTS at brokerage firms tracking the sector said Indian tech firms are seeing project delays and deferrals for the first time in four quarters. "Our channel checks at Wipro indicate that the company has seen signs of project delays/push-out in ramp-up plans by a few large clients due to the uncertain macro environment," Morgan Stanley analysts Vipin Khare and Gaurav Rateria said in a research note on September 9.
    "This is the most concrete data point we have come across so far that tends to explain the caution in recent management commentary across large vendors," they added.
    While customers such as Citibank and JP Morgan have resumed spending on projects they shelved over past 18 months, the focus has shifted to more short-term results.
    This poses difficult questions for vendors seeking to address the immediate demand because they need to hire additional staff.
    "We are taking risks in terms of recruiting. We have realised that in the short term there is visibility, so we want to take advantage of the growth. If the growth slows down again, we will have a larger bench," said Mr Gopalakrishnan.
    America goes to the polls on November 2 to elect a brand new House of Representatives, one of the two key lawmaking bodies. Elections will be held to all the 435 House seats and for all the 36 senate seats. Several states will also hold elections for governor and state House and senate seats. Opinion polls show that the Democrats are trailing the Republicans and President Barack Obama's approval ratings have suffered a serious blow.
    Both the party and the president have responded by taking a populist approach to certain issues, especially unemployment. Chuck Schumer, the senator from New York, lashed out at Infosys last month, calling it a chop shop, a derogatory term, which refers to stolen auto shops where parts are dismantled to be resold later. The governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, last week announced that his state will ban outsourcing of work to overseas destinations by government departments. President Obama, who was voted to power in 2008 on the back of strong trade union support, also announced last week that the government will end tax breaks for firms that send jobs overseas.
    Multinational outsourcing rival Cognizant, which grew its April to June quarter revenue sequentially by 15.2% even as the country's Big Three struggled to get into double digits, is also
seeing uncertainty become a part of the future business.
    "I think the economic indicators over the past few months have been worse than what there were earlier, but that's the new normal we have to deal with," said Cognizant CEO Francisco D'- Souza. "There are still some structural challenges that exist in the US economy — unemployment is still high, debt is high, both public and private," added Mr D'Souza.
    Some customers are waiting for the November elections to happen and take stock of economy next year before committing to any large IT projects, such as ERP upgrades. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) helps large manufacturing and retail firms automate and integrate their processes of production, finance and inventory.
    "In some cases, we are seeing the sales cycles go back to the 2008 levels. In fact, one of our customers has recently deferred an SAP upgrade scheduled for this year," said the CEO of one of the large Indian tech firms. He requested anonymity.
    If the housing recovery takes shape after the November elections as predicted, things could settle down for the industry, experts say.
    "The 6-12 month period after November elections will need to be watched closely," said Mr Mc-Carthy.
    Meanwhile, some customers are beginning to tighten their purse strings and are asking vendors such as TCS, Wipro and Infosys to fund their new projects. Such engagements demand upfront investments of $1-10 million, depending upon the number of user licences to be bought and amount of customisation required, among other costs.
    "Clients are not getting any more money and are asking vendors to manage and even lower costs with what they have," says McCarthy.



Sunday, September 12, 2010

list of 100 Fastest Growing Small Companies that hold the potential to make it big

Although India Inc's giants hog the limelight more often, their smaller counterparts are not far behind. ET Intelligence Group brings you the latest list of 100 Fastest Growing Small Companies that hold the potential to make it big

 SUCCESS, be it small or big, needs to be celebrated. In keeping with this belief, ET Intelligence Group unveils a list of India Inc's 100 Fastest Growing Small Companies annually. It is the fastestgrowing small companies of today that hold the promise to emerge as tomorrow's giants.
    But this comes with a caveat. It is difficult to say, for sure, which of these smaller speedsters of India Inc would make it to the Grand Prix in the future. As they say, past performance is no guarantee of excellence in the future. But what we can state from historical trends is the kind of companies which have the potential to make it big.
    Given their consistent past performance, the companies in the latest list of ETIG's 100 Fastest Growing Small Companies hold the potential to emerge as likely winners. Investors should cherry-pick stocks from the list based on further research or build a portfolio based on our selection to stay ahead of the markets.
THE SHOWSTOPPERS ON BOURSES
A robust financial performance goes a long way in winning investor confidence. To put it in perspective, 77 companies that featured in our 2009 list of 100 Fastest Growing Small Companies outperformed the benchmark indices in the year gone by. Moreover, the stock prices of 27 companies more than doubled during the period.
    A portfolio, which includes the top 10 companies from the list, would have enriched an investor by 59%, as against a market gain of 21%. A portfolio of top 25 companies would have earned 61%. And a portfolio with equal weightage of all these
100 companies would be valued higher today by 73%. Indeed an impressive feat.
THE NEW HEROES
Zydus Wellness leads the ETIG's 2010 list of 100 Fastest Growing Small Companies. It zoomed to the top from fourth position last year. The scrip has benefited immensely due to the merger of Cadila Healthcare's consumer healthcare business and continues to remain debt-free and cash-rich.
    The recently listed Technofab Engineering occupies the second spot, thanks to its impressive profit growth ov the last three years. But it is Hawkins Coo ers, which stole the show in the top five. made it to the top three after figuring do in the list at the 19th position last year. A superior profit growth in FY10 helped the company cruise past the likes of Man Infr construction, Vinati Organics and VST Tillers Tractors. Vinati Organics shot up from last year's 14th rank to 8th this year and VST Tillers from 27th to 12th positio
    A few seem to have lost their ground compared to last year. Tata Sponge Iron, which stood tall at the third position in 2009 list, has slipped to 20th this year. Similarly, Praj Industries slipped considerably moving down to 83 in the l after being ranked 10th last year. Sulzer dia, the topper from last year, recently g delisted and hence couldn't make it to th list this year.
    Among other firms, Bliss GVS Pharma made an impressive entry to the list occupying the fourth position. Man Infra — another newly listed company — entered the list directly at the fifth spot. Plastic goods manufacturer, Mayur Uniquoters, which had failed to make it to last year's list due to weak interest coverage ratio in the past, has made it this year. The company ranks seventh in this year's list.
    Do refer to the future editions of ET Investor's Guide to know more about some of the companies in the latest listing.
HOW WE DID IT?
For compiling the list of companies, we included companies with net sales below 1,000 crore during FY10. With a view to exclude small companies with possibly dubious credentials, we eliminated from the list companies with a market capitalisation of less than 50 crore.
    To make sure that the list was populated only with companies showing healthy financials, we added further criteria, such as return on capital employed (RoCE), debt-equity ratio (DER) and interest coverage ratio (ICR), cash flows from operations and dividends paid.
India Inc's Small Speedsters
AS A result, the final list comprised companies, which consistently maintained their RoCE over 15% during the past three years, DER below 1.5 in the past three years and an ICR above 5. Companies which had missing or skipped dividends more than once during the last three years or companies with more than one year of negative operating cashflows, too, were weeded out.
    This left us with nearly 140 companies with healthy financials. Since we were trying to identify the fastest growing companies, we calculated weighted average growth rates of sales and profits for all these companies, assigning the highest weightage to growth in FY10. This rewarded their latest performance
over growth in the past. Finally, the three-year sales and profit growth and RoCE were assigned 30:30:40 weightage to decide the final rankings.
    We also decided not to select such companies that have strained their balance sheets for the sake of pursuing high growth. Our list comprises healthy cash generating companies, paying regular dividends with under-leveraged balance sheets. These companies are also earning substantially higher on the capital they have invested in their businesses than their cost of funds. This ensures that they will continue to have sufficient surplus to reinvest in the business
after paying their creditors and equity shareholders. Less of debt and higher interest coverage ensure their sustainability even in difficult times.
    These companies have performed consistently to deserve a ranking in the list. But remember, the entry to our list of 100 Fastest Growing Small Companies alone is not an investment trigger. It serves more as an entry point to begin your investment research. Happy investing…
    ramkrishna.kashelkar@timesgroup.com 








Four new pvt bank licences likely in first lot

While more than a dozen corporate and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) are keen on making a banking debut, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may start off by handing out just four new banking licenses, and that too, not all at once. Although the central bank will refer the applications of candidates to an external group, some key criteria for eligibility appear to be in place. With the central bank preferring to allow "well-established corporate houses with no exposure to sensitive sectors like real estate and a diversified ownership," it would appear that NBFCs including L&T Finance, SKS Microfinance and Shriram Group stand the best chance of making it to the first list.

"RBI would cap the number of bank licenses in this round at four, though these too will be given in a phased manner. Nothing has been finalized as yet since RBI's discussions are at a preliminary stage," said a source in the know of the development. He added that key criteria for selecting potential candidates would be, "corporate with pedigree, dispersed shareholding and no exposure to sensitive sectors like real estate."

"RBI is also expected to set a net worth requirement of Rs 1,000 crore and give promoters of new banks up to 10 years to reduce their holding in a phased manner," said a source familiar with the development. It's also possible they would need to open 25% of their branches in rural areas. The guidelines issued in 1993 for new private sector banks had prescribed Rs 100 crore as minimum capital. This was raised to Rs 200 crore in 2001 with a condition that it be raised further to Rs300 crore over three years from starting business.

It's early days yet since the discussion paper was released in early August and the central bank is still in discussions with prospective candidates about the possible guidelines. However, based on the criteria that RBI will keep in mind while allowing new players, the four NBFCs, sources said, stand a good chance of making it. The discussion paper reflected RBI's concerns on allowing new banks. Past approaches, international experience and the various costs and benefits of having more new banks as well as the pros and cons of policy parameters were considered. The RBI is expected to set stiff eligibility criteria. It had invited comments from industry groups and other stakeholders.

In the Union Budget for 2010-11, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had said the RBI was considering issuing banking licenses to private sector firms and NBFCs.


Monday, September 6, 2010

China’s FDI in US zooms 160% in 2009

China's FDI in US zooms 160% in 2009

Beijing: China milked the opportunity offered by the slowdown in US economy by pushing up its investment in that country by 160% in 2009. This is one reason why it has managed to grab the 5th rank in foreign direct investment.
    Experts say Beijing is now directing its attention towards low-cost European debt, which has been severely hit by the weakening economy. Year 2010 will see China hugely enhancing its investment in Europe, they said.
    Chinese investors also more than doubled their investment in European Union and ASEAN destinations. Fund pumping by Beijing happened in a year of economic slowdown when the levels of global FDI actually fell by 40%.

    Beijing hugely improved on its own record, investing $90 billion in overseas destinations in 2009 as compared to its FDI of $56 billion the previous year. It expects to raise the level of $100 billion this year, Shen Danyang, vice-director of the commerce ministry said.
    Besides higher levels of Chinese investments, the slowdown in FDI by several developed countries is what helped Beijing make the pole jump from the 12th to the 5th position in 2009.
    The official Chinese media Jinny Yan, Shanghai based economist of Standard Chartered Bank, predicted that the EU would continue to be a hotspot for China's outbound investment in the coming months because of the ongoing European debt woes. China contributed 5.1% of the global overseas direct investment of $1.1 trillion in 2009.

  

 

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