Alibaba-backed firm denies role in stock market turmoil

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in an announcement published on its website late Monday that it has sent teams to Hundsun Technologies Inc for an investigation.

Hundsun Technologies, the financial information technology company controlled by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma Yun, on Monday rejected local media criticism that blamed its cloud-based platform for recent turmoil in China's stock market.

"It's not objective or rational to say that HOMS was the major cause of the stock market turmoil," Hundsun said on Monday in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The HOMS system was launched in May 2012, and it was originally designed for small and mid-sized asset management firms.

But during China's stock rally, it has been widely used by "gray market lenders," which are off-market financing firms that allow speculators to borrow up to 10 times their starting capital for up to 17 percent annualized interest.

During the past four weeks, when the Chinese stock market fell about 30 percent, investors with excessive leverage were forced to sell shares to meet margin calls, setting off a downward spiral in share prices.

Although the CSRC said that off-market margin financing and sell-offs using the HOMS system were merely "a small fraction" of total transaction value, commentaries in the domestic media have said that the HOMS platform sparked a highly leveraged bull run and then triggered a plunge.

In the Monday statement, Hundsun said that only 30.1 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) of deals represented forced selling on its HOMS platform from June 15 to July 10, accounting for 0.1 percent of the total transactions during the period.

On Friday, Alibaba Group's Internet financial affiliate Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group pledged to invest at least 40 million yuan within the following six months, buying shares in Hundsun from the secondary market to stabilize the stock price, according to a Hundsun filing.

Shares in Hundsun jumped by the daily trading limit of 10 percent in early trading on Monday after losing nearly 60 percent since June 11.

Tsinghua Unigroup offers to buy Micron Technology for $23 billion: WSJ

Chinese private equity firm Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd offered to buy U.S. memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) for $23 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Tsinghua offered $21 per share for Micron, which is at a 19.3 percent premium to the stock's close on Monday, the Journal said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

If it goes ahead, the deal would be the biggest Chinese takeover of a U.S. company.

Micron and Tsinghua Unigroup were not immediately available to comment on the report.

Micron makes both dynamic random access memory chips, used mostly in personal computers, and NAND memory chips for storing music, pictures and other data on smartphones, cameras and other mobile devices.

Acquiring Micron's cutting-edge memory manufacturing technology would be a major advance for China's modest but improving chip industry. The country has no major memory makers.

Billionaire hedge fund manager David Einhorn said in an investor letter on Monday that Micron Technology would be worth more than Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) within the next few years. Netflix was worth $42.9 billion at the close on Monday.

Britain to force companies to publish gender pay gap

Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans on Tuesday to force large companies to publish the difference in earnings between male and female staff in a bid to ensure equal pay.

Currently, woman on average are paid roughly 20 percent less than men in Britain, a discrepancy that Cameron vowed to end "in a generation".

"Today I'm announcing a really big move: we will make every single company with 250 employees or more publish the gap between average female earnings and average male earnings," Cameron wrote in newspaper The Times.

"That will cast sunlight on the discrepancies and create the pressure we need for change, driving women's wages up."

In addition, girls should be encouraged to enter careers where women are under-represented, company boards should include more women, and access to affordable childcare should be increased, Cameron wrote.

John Allan, national chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said there were more women directors than ever before and welcomed the government's plan.

"To help support this trend we need to keep up the momentum and break down the remaining barriers that prevent women progressing in the workplace and the boardroom, and so we welcome, and look forward to taking part in, the government's gender pay gap consultation," Allan said.

But others were critical, saying the plan would be costly for businesses and wouldn't help reduce the pay gap.

"His intention is that it will drive women's wages up. In reality, it is just as likely, over time, to drive wages down or cause other unintended consequences, which will be bad for the economy," wrote James Quinn, group business editor of the Telegraph Media Group.

"Quotas, rules and placing extra costs on business are not the way to ensure diversity in the workplace."

Match Group buys Canadian dating site PlentyofFish

The Match Group, the New York-based company that owns dating websites Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder, said Tuesday that it has purchased Vancouver-based dating website PlentyOfFish for $575 million.

Match Group CEO Sam Yagan said it was attracted to PlentyOfFish's consistent growth, and it plans to integrate the Canadian company's mobile app into its existing family of digital and online dating services.

PlentyOfFish CEO and founder Markus Frind said users of his site's free matchmaking service will see little difference, though he will apply what the Match Group has learned over the past decade to the user experience on his own website.

"We'll have access to more data and knowledge within the greater group," he said.

Frind, the sole owner of PlentyOfFish, said he'll stay on as CEO and plans to concentrate on expanding the company's mobile audience. Eighty percent of PlentyOfFish's traffic now comes from mobile devices.

Frind said there was no individual reason he decided to sell the company, but the time seemed right.

"The company is growing extremely quickly; we're at the top of the market," he said. "I also have a daughter that's now 10 months old. You start measuring your time in different increments."

Frind launched the company from his apartment in 2003. By 2008, he had 15 million users. In March of this year, PlentyOfFish surpassed 100 million users, and the company now employs more than 70 people at its downtown Vancouver office.

"We are thrilled to be joining forces with Match," Frind said. "My team and I have grown PlentyOfFish into one of the leaders in our category, and I am confident that Match will help accelerate our growth even further."

PlentyofFish user Janine Gaudette, 35, said the site may lose its appeal to some extent now since it was one of the only major dating sites that was Canadian born and bred.

"The site will now just be another fish in Match Group's sea of dating sites and I'm not sure if that will hamper or change who uses the site or the user experience," she said.

The Match Group said the deal is subject to approval from Canada's federal industry minister and is expected to close early in the fourth quarter.

The Match Group offers dating products through nearly 50 brands in 40 languages around the world.

About 31 million Americans have used a dating site or app, according to a 2013 Pew Research Center study. In 2011, a Leger Marketing survey found that 36 percent of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 say they've participated in online dating. And there are more than 14 million single Canadian adults, a huge market for online matchmakers.

The Match brands and PlentyOfFish both generate revenue through a combination of advertising and paid subscription options.

PlentyOfFish, however, offers a free service that allows users to access features such as messaging and advanced search options that other sites put behind a paywall. The company generates most of its revenue through advertising.

Uber to raise $1 bln for business in the Chinese mainland

U.S.-based car-hailing service provider Uber is seeking to raise $1 billion for its China business, and search giant Baidu Inc will participate in the financing, news portal qq.com reported Tuesday, citing sources close to the matter.

Uber values itself at $5 billion to $7 billion and Baidu's investment may top $100 million, said the report, which cited sources who had access to documents Uber gave to potential Chinese investors. The fundraising effort began on June 22, the report said.

Uber announced in June that it would set up an independent management system and separate office for its operations in the Chinese mainland. It also plans to list its China business either in the mainland or in Hong Kong no earlier than 2016, probably before its global IPO.

On December 17, Baidu agreed to make a strategic investment in Uber. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but some media reports put the figure at about $600 million.

QQ.com reported that the Baidu investment in Uber will be made in two parts, involving one stake of about 1.5 percent in Uber's global company and another stake of no less than 10 percent in Uber's China business.

Baidu Vice President Liu Jun, who leads the company's mapping business and location-based services, has joined Uber's board, qq.com reported in May.

Huang Xue, a public relations employee in the Uber office in China, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the company does not comment on market rumors.

Chinese car-hailing firm Didi Kuaidi, seen as a rival to Uber, has raised $2 billion. It is also inviting new investors including Capital International Private Equity Fund and Chinese insurer Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, it said on July 8.

Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, backed by Chinese Internet giants Tencent Holdings and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding respectively, merged in a $6 billion deal in February. The new company claims to be logging 3 million daily rides.

Including proceeds from the latest fundraising, Didi Kuaidi is forecast to have more than $3.5 billion in cash reserves, and it plans to expand into financing, insurance and overseas markets.

To get more capital to expand its China business, Uber has been seeking Chinese investors. But qq.com's source said that Uber previously did not provide detailed business performance information to potential investors, only claiming that it was logging 1 million daily rides in China.

The qq.com report said Uber expects its transactions in the mainland market will account for about one-third of the global total, but it also forecasts huge losses.

QQ.com's source said that investors are concerned about fake orders, and some fear that the company may not be eligible for a listing on the Chinese stock markets.

LG Display's Q4 profit up due to demand from Apple

LG Display, the world's second- largest LCD maker, reported fourth-quarter profit beating market estimates due to strong demand from Apple.
Operating profit was 587.3 billion won (550 million U.S. dollars) in the three months ended Dec. 31, after posting a 154.7 billion won loss a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday. The profit almost doubled from three months before.

Sri Lanka to open Chinese funded airport in March

Sri Lanka will declare open a Chinese funded international airport in March this year, Sri Lankan Civil Aviation Minister said on Thursday.
Civil Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne said that the airport will be declared open for commercial operations on March 18, becoming Sri Lanka's second international airport.