The global consumer products giant Procter & Gamble has opened an online store on the Chinese Internet shopping website Taobao.com, marking the company's debut into China's Internet marketing sector. Founded in 1837, P&G is one the largest consumer products companies in the world. It has operations in more than 80 countries, with more than 300 brands [...]

Anheuser-Busch InBev, Tsingtao Beer's second-largest single shareholder, has announced that it will sell 91,641,342 H shares in Tsingtao Beer for HKD19.83 per share to Chen Fashu, chairman of the Fujian-based New Huadu Industrial Group. According to a representative from the public relations department of Anheuser-Busch InBev China the transaction, which has a total value of USD235 [...]

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Banks might find fundraising difficult after stress tests Federal Reserve officials are giving preliminary results of the stress tests to banks Friday, and the Fed is also releasing the tests’ methodology to the public. The banks might find it hard to raise funds because their troubled assets have soared during the past year. “We’re really hesitant to put money into financials,” said Douglas Ciocca, a managing director at Renaissance Financial. “The ambiguity is still engulfing the opportunity.” Bloomberg (24 ...

The Hong Kong-listed casual apparel retailer Giordano International has published its annual financial report for 2008 and states that its revenue in 2008 increased by 6.3% to HKD4.71 billion while its net profit reached HKD311 million. According to the report, a major part of Giordano's revenue was from its businesses in mainland China. During the period, [...]

L'Oreal Group has announced that its 2008 sales in China showed an increase of 27.7% year-on-year. The company said although 2008 was a hard year, it had still realized growth in sales volume, market share, and net profit. In addition, the group achieved double-digit growth in the Chinese market over eight consecutive years. Statistics show that in [...]

Fitch Ratings downgraded the sovereign ratings of Hungary (to BBB from BBB-plus), Bulgaria, Kazakhstan (by one notch to BBB-, the lowest investment-grade level) and Romania (by two notches to BB-plus from BBB) on Monday while warning that the ratings of South Korea, South Africa, Russia and Mexico are also in jeopardy.  European Union members Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states “may not be able to handle their large foreign debt burdens, which could spark financial crises,” Fitch said, adding that problems in advanced economies “triggered extreme volatility in emerging market asset prices” and prompted “liquidity strains”.

It lowered its outlook on South Korea, Mexico, Russia and South Africa to negative from stable, while that of Chile and Malaysia were cut to stable from positive.

I have been much more positive about the Japanese economy than most other analysts in recent months, largely because I believed that many of the problems from the Japanese recession of 1990-2003 were finally in the country’s rearview mirror. In particular, I believed that the Japanese budget deficit – which, by 2003, had become quite acute – was well on the way to being solved through public spending restraint. That, in turn, would allow Japan to pay down its excessive public debt, giving its private sector room to expand. But the surprise resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Monday suggests I may have been wrong about the country’s near-term prospects. Japan Gives Investors a Bubble Bath The Japanese stock market and real estate bubble of the 1980s is now the stuff of stock-market legend, for it sent that country into ...

Invest in a South Korea exchange traded fund (ETF) via MSCI South Korean Index Fund.

In addition, investors have high hopes for Motorola after the recent appointment of a new CEO for the failing mobile device division, but analysts remain skeptical.

Emerging market superstars like India and China are beginning to panic about domestic inflation. But Martin Hutchinson reveals that South Korea is most definitely worth investing in.

Where should you put your money in 2008? And more importantly, how can you make money in 2008? These are not easy questions to answer. With the credit crunch sending shock waves around the globe, and the Fed’s dismal attempts to solve the problem, these questions loom large … Fortunately, there are some good answers just waiting in the wings. One market in particular not only looks bulletproof, it is posting some of the fastest - and most consistent - productivity gains of all the Asian countries. In fact, this particular economy is one of the most competitive on the planet.  And get this: It’s dirt cheap, trading at a P/E of only 12. Many investors have shied away from this mega-growth market - but that ...