CX Daily: A New Chinese Food and Beverage Wave Hits Southeast Asia
TOP STORIES
F&B?/
Forget kung pao chicken and sweet and sour pork. There’s a new wave of food and beverage chains flowing out of China, and it’s all about Sichuan hot pot, braised chicken rice and pickle fish soup — as well as mainstays like bubble tea.
Chinese food and beverage (F&B) companies have expanded quickly into Southeast Asia, and even into North America and Europe, in the past few years, driven in part by saturation at home. According to Huafu Securities Co. Ltd., nearly 3.19 million new F&B enterprises were registered in China in 2023, a 24.2% increase from the previous year. ?
PwC?/
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) has lost its largest client in the Chinese mainland amid a wave of client departures triggered by a regulatory probe into the auditing firm’s work with scandal-hit developer China Evergrande Group.
Bank of China Ltd., one of the country’s biggest four state lenders, said it will hire EY as its auditor for 2024, replacing PwC China. The bank will also hire domestic audit firm BDO China Shu Lun Pan CPAs LLP as the secondary auditor, Caixin learned. ?
FINANCE & ECONOMY
Delisting?/
China’s tightened delisting rules have led to a rapid increase in the number of companies booted from stock exchanges while leaving many others on the brink, as investors have dumped lower-priced stocks amid a sluggish market.
In the first seven months of this year, more than 40 companies traded on the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges were either delisted or slated for delisting, nearly as many as in all of 2023, according to Caixin calculations based on available records from the bourses. ?
Investments?/
Tensions are growing between China’s startups and investors as the latter find it increasingly difficult to exit their investments through a sluggish IPO market, instead resorting to pre-listing agreements with refund clauses, which in many cases lead to litigation.
Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) funds will have trouble exiting around 130,000 investments in China, involving about 14,000 companies, Shanghai-based law firm Lifeng Partners estimated in a recent report. ?
领英推荐
Quick hits?/
BUSINESS & TECH
Tariffs?/
China has denounced the European Commission’s plan to definitely impose tariff hikes on all electric vehicles (EVs) shipped from the country as “unreasonable,” and vowed to take “all necessary measures” to defend Chinese companies.
The commission on Tuesday announced an adjusted set of proposed additional duties on China-made EVs as part of an ongoing investigation that found state subsidies are enabling Chinese electric-car makers to undercut their European rivals.
Huawei?/
The valuation of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd’s smart car unit has surged to 115 billion yuan ($16 billion) only seven months after its launch, following a recent investment.
Yinwang Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huawei founded in January, has agreed to sell a 10% stake to Avatr Technology Inc., an electric vehicle (EV) startup backed by China’s state-owned automaker Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. Ltd. and battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) ?
Gaming?/
The global debut of Black Myth: Wukong, a Tencent Holdings Ltd.-backed video game, has generated a level of public excitement not seen in the gaming industry for years.
The action-adventure role-playing title, available on PC and PlayStation 5 (PS5), is based on the Chinese mythological figure Monkey King and classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West.” ?
Quick hits?/
Long Read?/