Ping An buys London office property

    PING An Insurance Group Co. of China Ltd., China’s second-largest insurer by market capitalization, has bought London office property Tower Place for 327 million pounds (US$490.04 million), the building’s seller said Friday.

    Deutsche Bank AG’s asset and wealth management division said Shenzhen-based Ping An bought the property in a statement late Thursday. Tower Place was designed by renowned architect Norman Foster and sits in London’s insurance district. The anchor tenant of the 385,000-square-feet building is U.S. insurance consultancy Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.

    COSCO Group returns to profit in 2014

    CHINA Ocean Shipping Group Co. (COSCO) returned to profit in 2014 after three years of losses, Xinhua said Saturday, citing an interview with the group’s chairman.

    The shipping conglomerate, which controls China COSCO Holdings Co., had a profit of 5.04 billion yuan (US$809.26 million) last year, said Ma Zehua, according to Xinhua. Operating revenues were up 2 percent year on year, said Xinhua, without providing a figure, while COSCO’s asset to liability ratio fell 4.4 percentage points to 55.4 percent at the end of 2014.

    Kaisa in talks on possible asset sales

    TROUBLED Shenzhen-based property firm Kaisa Group is talking to banks and rival developers about selling its assets as the company scrambles to raise cash, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

    A number of developers have approached the company about possibly buying some of its holdings, said the sources. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that developers speaking to Kaisa include China Vanke and Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town. But domestic media quoted an executive at Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town as saying Friday that there is no such thing as taking over Kaisa.

    Yuan posts biggest one-day loss in 7 weeks

    CHINA’S yuan posted its biggest single-day loss since Dec. 8 on Friday after the central bank set a weaker midpoint in response to the fresh round of quantitative easing announced by the European Central Bank a day earlier.

    The yuan opened at 6.2180 per dollar and ended at 6.2288, its lower close in nearly seven month.