17/03/2014 Asia Business Report

Now, we go to Singapore for Asia Business Report.

China lets its currency trade in a wider band, doubling the range

against the US dollar. Ali Baba picks New York over Hong Kong for

its share sale, and we find out why. Welcome to Asia Business Report.

China is in focus this morning after Beijing announced it would allow the

you whine to trade in a wider range. -- yuan. This has been welcomed by

the US Treasury. Washington and Beijing have frequently been locked

in disputes over the value of the yuan. There will also be

geopolitical risks after the referendum in Crimea. The people in

Crimea have voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining Russia. The

referendum has come under fierce criticism from both the US and

Europe, and Japan has just come out to say that it does not recognise

the referendum either. Here is how regional markets are trading.

the referendum either. Here is how regional markets They are generally

down, except in Korea. Earlier, I spoke with a financial

expert from Sydney. I asked about China White in the range of its

currency. China are allowing the currency to become more freely

traded on the market. It is slower than expected, but it is part of a

well thought out process. The lasting China want to see is

artificially inflated currency, and they have allowed their currency to

depreciate, but they are allowing it to happen in an orderly way. You

think it will start to speed up now? It will start to speed things up by

Chinese standards, but not necessarily by Western standards. In

developing markets, these things are well thought out. There is always

caution. We are seeing traders during this is a positive future for

the Chinese market, so I think the market is seeing this is a great

leap than we have seen in recent years. Of course, weak economic news

from Beijing weighed on the market last week. Now, in terms of Crimea,

that was a huge factor for markets last week. What you think we will

see this week? They have started fairly mixed. The market has almost

entirely brushed this off, because it was expected. What we are seeing

in the Australian market, for example, and in other Asian markets,

is basically the status quo. We are not seeing fallout from the

referendum outcome which was expected. There are reports of a

huge flight of capital outside the US, by Russian nationals, back into

Russia, in anticipation of sanctions coming through. We have seen in

recent history but that has the ability to impact markets. We will

be watching gold prices, oil, and pockets of investment where some

Russian capital outside of the US might find a home. The world's

largest e-commerce firm, Alibaba, has chosen to hold its share sale in

New York over Hong Kong. This could be the biggest public offering since

Facebook raised 16 billion last year. One of the main reasons

Alibaba picks New York is that exchanges in the US allow founders

like Mark Zuckerberg to retain country of their companies even if

they don't own a majority of shares. That is not possible in Hong Kong.

Sunday's statement from Alibaba makes it very clear that they are

now pursuing a listing in America. It is not clear what stock exchange

in New York will win the deal, but absolutely, and a lot of people

think it might be even bigger than the Facebook listing of 16 billion

US dollars. Something like nine out of the ten most recent IPOs in the

tech sector have turned their back on Hong Kong and gone to the US

instead. Is there any indication that there might be some flexibility

from Hong Kong? The one shareholder, 1-vote rule? Certainly,

the Hong Kong stock exchange leader has been writing on his blog saying

there should be a reconsideration of the rules. We will see that actually

happens. I think Hong Kong is very proud of its rules, and proud that

it believes the system is very fair. Any change would be extremely hard

fought. That said, there might be a couple of mega listings later on

this year. One company has said reportedly that it may be raising as

much as $6 billion in the first half of this year. There will still be

some listings, big internet Chinese companies, with very few

exceptions, they have always traditionally preferred to list in

New York. SoftBank shares are up in Tokyo. The Japanese wireless carrier

owns 70% of Alibaba. We should point out that the business to business

marketplace unit Alibaba is already listed on the New York Stock

Exchange since 2007. Honda is recalling around 100,000 of its

habitat to see many vans. The automaker said they may catch fire.

-- Odyssey. The company added that proper repair parts will not be

available until the middle of next year.

A deal that has involved the acquisition of a large French bank,

has gone through from one of the largest lenders in South East Asia.

With weak demand for Indian goods in traditional markets like Europe and

the US, Africa is already proving to be increasingly important to the

Asian giant. We spoke to some experts at a recent summit in Delhi

to find out more. Summits like this are one way to

engage with Africa. This one, organised by India's main industry

body, attracted leaders and businessmen from more than 40

African countries. Deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars were

discussed, deals that look all the more likely as India's trade with

Africa grows. India has done extraordinarily well in Africa. It

has increased its share of trade with Africa from about 1% to 6%. It

has been the number five country as far as FDI is concerned. This

relationship has grown in the past decade. Experts think this is just

the beginning. India is today where we expect African countries to be in

about ten years. It is an emerging market, they could bring a different

viewpoint to those we have seen before. They have a large role to

play. We have been able to see what they have been able to do over a

relatively short period of time, how they brought infrastructure online.

They had the same issues that most African countries up dealing with

now. Issues with power deficit, sanitation. We feel that this will

translate very well to Africa. In India, middle classes are getting

wealthier and spending more money. Indian companies are discovering

this in Africa, and are competing with each other to sell. One example

is telecommunication. One of India's largest telecom companies,

airtel, paid for a contract to take over the networks there. Their

largest market is in Nigeria. So far, India's, as with Africa is

still dwarfed by China, but relations between India and Africa

looks set to go from strength to strength. -- India's commerce with

Africa. That easy Asia Business Report.

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