Internet giant Alibaba paid US$2.6 billion for the retailer Intimate group, another sign Alibaba wants to leverage its online presence to brick-and-mortar retail operations, says retail analyst Ben Cavender to Reuters. Earlier it bought also leading retailer Suning.Read More →

In line with expectations, McDonald´s has sold a controlling stake of its China and Hong Kong operation to private investors, after competitor Yum did the same last year. With the new financial resources, the China operation can improve fast, says Shanghai-based retail analyst Ben Cavender to Bloomberg.Read More →

Increased government restrictions on the outflow of capital will severely impend the outbound M&A activities in the first quarter of 2017, after a record year in 2016, expects business analyst Shaun Rein, according to the South China Morning Post.Read More →

China´s consumers have been eager purchasers of foreign products, but getting them at the right price proved to be troublesome. New startups are going to make that choice easier, predicts William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV and managing director of Chinaccelerator, in TechNode, after closing days of presentations by startups.Read More →

A Chinese bid for the Chicago Stock Exchange is running into major roadblocks, both in China and the US. The bidder the private Chinese company Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group might have waited too long, says business analyst Shaun Rein in the South China Morning Post. Both in China and the US barriers seem too high to close the deal.Read More →

Logistics firms in China, like ZTO Express, build on the booming e-commerce. Despite their success in China, it might take quite some time before they become global players like FedEx or UPS says business analyst Shaun Rein, and author of The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia,to CNBC.Read More →