Brokerages encouraged to expand business

    CHINA is relaxing rules for securities companies to allow them to expand their business and offer new products, another step in deepening reforms in its fledging capital market.

    Securities firms would be encouraged to develop new businesses tied to the booming online financial services market, and would be expected to help create an industry-wide payment system, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement on its website, without further details. Firms would be allowed to broaden their financing channels by raising capital through bond or share sales. Mergers and acquisitions would be encouraged and they can also tap new financing instruments.

    China CNR raises US$1.2b in HK share offer

    CHINA CNR Corp., the world’s largest train maker by sales, has raised US$1.2 billion in a Hong Kong share offering, with pricing coming in at the low end.

    China CNR sold 1.82 billion new shares, equivalent to 15 percent of its enlarged share capital, at HK$5.17 (US$US0.67) each, after marketing the offering between HK$5 and HK$6.20, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said Friday.

    China Southern to buy 80 Airbus planes

    CHINA Southern Airlines Co. has signed an agreement to buy a total of 80 passenger planes from Airbus Group as Chinese carriers go on a buying spree with the European plane maker and rival Boeing Co.

    The Guangzhou-based carrier said Friday in a statement that it ordered 30 Airbus A320 series planes and 50 of the successor model, the A320neo series planes due for its first test flight this year. The deal has a combined list price value of up to US$9.33 billion, though customers typically get large discounts.

    Baidu hires ex-Google artificial intelligence chief

    CHINESE search giant Baidu Inc. has hired Google Inc.’s former artificial intelligence (AI) chief Andrew Ng to spearhead research in a field that promises to show Internet companies how to maximize use of their vast data trove.

    Baidu said Friday it has opened a new AI lab in Silicon Valley to complement its Deep Learning Lab and Big Data Lab in Beijing, both of which will also be headed by Ng. The news was announced at Baidu’s newly opened research complex in Sunnyvale, California, located near the Mountain View headquarters of Google, where Ng had founded and led an elite Deep Learning team in 2011.