Review: Censors are still China’s newsmakers 1 Feb 2013 Journalists fight for the right to break news - but China’s propaganda machine is far from broken. A recent book shows how and why the news is made. It’s still mostly by the state - and for the state.
Index: China tea leaves show recovery still fragile 1 Feb 2013 The Breakingviews Tea Leaf Index fell back to 95.5 at the end of 2012, as housing construction, bank lending and the price of maotai liquor inputs all weakened. There were bright spots: strong air traffic at least suggests Chinese travellers are still on the up.
AB InBev setback may hasten last round of beer M&A 1 Feb 2013 U.S. government opposition to AB InBev’s $20 bln buyout of Grupo Modelo may speed up a last bout of sector consolidation. The world’s biggest brewer may yet find a workable compromise with trustbusters. But an obvious plan B is pouncing on emerging-markets focused SABMiller.
Basel finds regulators fiddle bank capital too 1 Feb 2013 A study by the global watchdog found big disparities in the risks lenders attach to trading assets. But the gap isn’t just down to dodgy bank calculations: supervisors vary in their conservatism as well. To restore faith in capital ratios, both will have to be brought into line.
LEG is a bet on German property, good and bad 1 Feb 2013 Today’s flotation of LEG is the first big German IPO of 2013. While the German residential landlord won’t be cheap, investors are keen on the business. LEG’s long-term outlook is muddier, though. One-third of the portfolio’s apartments are in poor and declining areas.
Profit first casualty in China’s mobile ad war 1 Feb 2013 As China’s 560 million web users go mobile, online giants face a dilemma over how to corner the smartphone ad market. Ideas and scale both count. Tencent has killer app WeChat, while Baidu is offering users storage on its servers. Whoever wins, margins are likely to come down.