Brands increase presence on global playing field

CHINESE brands have increased their presence on the global playing field, according to a market research report released Monday.

A record high of 18 Chinese companies entered the 2021 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, compared with 17 in 2020. The top 10 chart saw Tencent outperform Alibaba this year, ranking fifth and seventh in brand value, respectively. The brand value of Chinese firms grew significantly among international competitors, with TikTok skyrocketing 158 percent to become the second-biggest riser after Tesla.

CNPC discovers China’s largest shale oil field

CHINA National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has discovered a shale oil field containing estimated 1 billion tons of shale oil in Northwest China’s Ordos Basin, the country’s largest shale oil field ever discovered.

The shale oil field was discovered by CNPC’s Changqing Oilfield Co., which has made a few major discoveries in recent three years. In 2019, Changqing discovered 359 million tons of shale oil in Qingcheng region of Northwest China’s Gansu Province. Xinhua quoted CNPC as saying that the discovery was made due to breakthroughs in core technologies like horizontal drilling.

51job to go private in US$5.7b deal

CHINA-BASED job portal 51job Inc. said Monday it reached an agreement to be taken private by a consortium of Chinese investors in a deal that values the U.S.-listed company at about US$5.7 billion.

In an all-cash deal expected to close in the second half of 2021, shareholders of 51job would receive US$79.05 per share. The consortium, which made the offer in early May, includes DCP Capital Partners, Ocean Link Partners and 51job’s co-founder Rick Yan.

Greater Bay Area firms expect rebound in orders

MANUFACTURES in the Greater Bay Area expected orders and sales to broadly rebound this year while capital expenditure was also set to increase, as China’s recovery from the outbreak of the coronavirus gained momentum, South China Morning Post quoted a survey by Standard Chartered as saying Monday.

A report on the survey’s findings by the bank also showed that manufacturers were showing more long-term confidence in the development zone. A quick containment of the domestic COVID-19 crisis had allowed manufacturers in the region to capture subsequent local and global demand recovery, Standard Chartered economists Kelvin Lau and Chidu Narayanan said in the report.