IN BRIEF

Deals

News Corp to acquire stake in Bona Film

News Corp has agreed to buy a stake in Chinese movie distributor Bona Film Group Ltd, becoming the latest US media company to expand into China's booming movie market.

News Corp will take a 19.9 percent stake in Bona Film from founder and chief executive Yu Dong, Bona said in a statement. It gave no financial details. The Nasdaq-listed company has a market capitalization of about $392 million.

News Corp China Investments chief executive Jack Gao said Bona was an attractive investment as it had film distribution and production business along with a chain of cinemas in China.

Internet

Sina may post second straight loss

Sina Corp, operator of the Twitter-like micro blog in China, may post a second straight quarterly loss because of increased spending, said Charles Chao, chief executive officer of the company.

Sina plans to increase spending on Weibo by 45 percent this year primarily with a view to upgrade services and win more users and advertisers, even as it faces intense competition from rivals like Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Government rules requiring micro-blog users to verify their identities had slowed growth at Sina Weibo during the first quarter of this year. The company posted a net loss of $13.7 million in the first quarter, compared with a profit of $15 million a year earlier.

Food

McDonald's raises prices of 4 products

Restaurant chain McDonald's Corp said it has raised the prices of four products by 1 yuan (15 US cents, 0.12 euro) in China since the end of April.

The price increase is around 17 percent and, apart from saying it was for structural adjustment, McDonald's did not give any specific reasons for the increase.

It was the company's second price hike in China this year. Four products for breakfast and lunch were not included in the previous increase. Prices of some McDonald's products rose by 0.5 to 2 yuan on Jan 12.

Property

Beijing home sales surge in May

Beijing's property sales, including new and pre-owned homes, saw a strong rebound in the first 15 days of May, according to statistics from real estate brokerage firm Century 21.

The brokerage said a total of more than 7,000 apartments were sold in the period, up 103 percent year-on-year. And the sales of pre-owned homes also jumped by 75 percent to more than 5,600 units.

"Property developers' strategy of cutting prices to stimulate sales worked. And the enthusiasm of potential home buyers was also lifted," said Su Ri, senior analyst from Century 21.

Investment

Outbound quantum to hit $150b in 2015

The Ministry of Commerce announced that outbound investment from China, the world's second-largest economy, is expected to total $150 billion in 2015. The country's overseas investment is predicted to grow by an annual rate of 17 percent during the 2011-15 period, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the ministry forecast that the contract value of overseas projects would reach $180 billion in 2015, while the business volume from overseas-contracted projects may hit $120 billion.

Amid accelerating Chinese investment, the ministry also expects the country to send 550,000 more Chinese employees to work on these projects in 2015, with the total number of Chinese personnel working in these projects slated to reach one million by the end of 2015.

Energy

CNOOC, Roc Oil ink product-sharing deal

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), the country's largest offshore oil producer, has signed a product-sharing contract with an Australian company on an oilfield in the Bohai Sea.

According to the contract, Roc Oil (Bohai) Co will collect three dimensional geological data on the 09/05 oilfield during the exploration period, CNOOC Ltd, a subsidiary of CNOOC, said.

Roc Oil (Bohai) Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roc Oil Co, one of Australia's largest oil and gas producers, will drill the block during the exploration period and bear all costs arising from the exploration, the contract said.

Pharma

Bristol-Myers unveils $20m expansion plan

Multinational drug producer Bristol-Myers Squibb Co is to invest $20 million in China to expand manufacturing capacity and further strengthen its research and development status via more cooperation with local partners.

Chief Executive Officer Lamberto Andreotti said the company would provide more innovative and high-quality medicines for Chinese patients to drive BMS' continuous and robust development in China.

Analysts said the US-based company, one of the world's top 10 biopharmaceutical companies, is moving to reduce its operating costs in China amid price-cut pressures from the central government.

China Daily-Agencies