DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

The Chinese company NetEase said on Wednesday that it had struck a deal to distribute titles from Microsoft’s Blizzard Entertainment, restoring access to popular video games like World of Warcraft for Chinese gamers. More than a year ago, NetEase and Blizzard called an end to their long-running partnership when renewal talks turned testy, with both sides accusing each other of bad-faith negotiations. An uproar ensued among Chinese gamers, upset about losing access to a slew of popular titles from Blizzard’s parent company, the U.S. game developer Activision Blizzard. NetEase said on Wednesday that it had reached the new deal with Microsoft, which acquired Activision Blizzard in a $69 billion deal in October. The two companies said they had also agreed to distribute NetEase titles on Microsoft’s Xbox game device.

Persons: NetEase, we’ve, ” William Ding Organizations: Microsoft’s Blizzard Entertainment, Activision Blizzard, Microsoft Locations: U.S

In Shenzhen, a metropolis born of China’s economic prosperity, Paibang Village is a reminder of the city’s modest past and the challenges ahead for reviving the country’s property sector. Paibang is what China calls an urban village, a labyrinth of low-slung apartment buildings and mom-and-pop storefronts connected by a maze of alleyways and narrow roads. There are hundreds of them in Shenzhen, a municipality of 18 million people next to Hong Kong, and thousands of such villages across China. Now with China mired in an unyielding property crisis, policymakers want to revamp aging urban neighborhoods like Paibang to kick-start construction and spur local economies. Seven years ago, Paibang was chosen for an “urban renewal” by city officials, and in 2019 China Evergrande, one of the country’s biggest real estate firms, took control of the project.

Persons: Paibang, Evergrande Locations: Shenzhen, China, Hong Kong

As developing countries weigh the consequences of borrowing heavily from China for major infrastructure projects, anti-corruption officials in Nepal have begun an investigation into a flagship airport financed and built by Chinese state-owned companies. Nepal’s $216 million international airport in Pokhara, the country’s second-biggest city, opened in January. China agreed to provide loans to build the airport more than a decade ago. Nepal tapped China CAMC Engineering, the construction arm of a state-owned conglomerate, Sinomach, as the contractor. Nepali officials have asked Beijing to change the loans into a grant to ease the financial burden, but China has not agreed to do so.

Persons: CAMC Organizations: China CAMC Engineering, New York Times, Civil Aviation Authority Locations: China, Nepal, Pokhara, Beijing

He went on to accuse Israel of being a terror organization because its airstrikes on Gaza had caused civilian casualties. A Chinese state broadcaster recently hosted a discussion page on Weibo stating that Jews controlled a disproportionate amount of U.S. wealth. Among the comments on recent posts from the official social media account of Israel’s embassy in China were similar comparisons of Israelis to Nazis. It is hard to say whether the anti-Israeli positions in state media and antisemitism on the Chinese internet are part of a coordinated campaign. “If China felt that it was dangerous and problematic to allow antisemitic comments to flourish, the censors would stop it.

Persons: Hu Xijin, I’m, ”, Israel, Shen Yi, Carice Witte Organizations: Global Times, Communist Party, Weibo, Fudan University, country’s Communist Party Locations: Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, China, Beijing, Israeli

An accountant in northeast China deposited her life savings and received a letter guaranteeing her investment in a trust firm. Workers at a state-owned utility pooled money from friends and relatives believing that their investments were backed by the government. A man sank $140,000 into an account that he was told would make a 10.1 percent annual return. They have offered no timetable for when people will be paid, fueling concerns that one of China’s largest so-called shadow banks may be near collapse. Zhongzhi has not made any public statements about its finances, and it did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Persons: Zhongzhi, Zhongrong Organizations: Workers, Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Locations: China

Country Garden, China’s biggest property developer, told creditors that it had made a late interest payment, averting an immediate default on its debts and keeping the company financially viable for the time being. Last month, the company missed two interest payments totaling $22.5 million on bonds that had been sold in U.S. dollars. It had a 30-day grace period to make the payment or risk default. Country Garden told the bondholders that it had made the payment within the grace period, a person close to the company said on Tuesday. The delayed payments underscored the financial pressure facing Country Garden, which has been China’s top-selling homebuilder for the last six years.

Organizations: Garden

When Country Garden, the biggest developer in China’s increasingly troubled real estate sector, published its annual report in April, the cover design exuded hope: a phoenix spreading its wings. The company said the image showed that China’s economy was “back on track” and that this year would see “growth soaring to new heights.”That was wishful thinking. Shortly after the report’s release, China’s nascent economic recovery lost steam and an already sluggish real estate market started to collapse. For the past three years, as dozens of major property developers defaulted after years of excessive borrowing, Country Garden was an outlier. But last month, it missed two interest payments — signaling that it, too, was at risk of financial collapse, with $187 billion in debt.

☆ China’s Biggest Homebuilder Raises Capital in Scramble to Pay Debts
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Daisuke Wakabayashi | More About Daisuke Wakabayashi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Country Garden said it planned to issue 350.6 million shares of the company at 77 Hong Kong cents apiece next Wednesday. Instead, they will go to a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Kingboard Holdings Limited, a materials and chemicals manufacturers with a property division to which Country Garden owes millions of dollars. Country Garden, China’s biggest property developer, is selling the shares at a 15 percent discount to Tuesday’s closing price. The company has until next week to repay the offshore bondholders or it will be in default to creditors. The financial trouble facing Country Garden is the latest fallout from a rapidly spreading real estate crisis in China.

Organizations: Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hong, Kingboard Holdings Locations: Hong Kong, China

Earlier this year, David Yang was brimming with confidence about the prospects for his perfume factory in eastern China. “It is disheartening,” Mr. Yang said. “The economy is really going downhill right now.”For much of the past four decades, China’s economy seemed like an unstoppable force, the engine behind the country’s rise to a global superpower. A real estate crisis borne from years of overbuilding and excessive borrowing is running alongside a larger debt crisis, while young people are struggling with record joblessness. And amid the drip feed of bad economic news, a new crisis is emerging: a crisis of confidence.

Persons: David Yang, Covid, Yang, Mr Locations: China

A model Chinese property developer in a sector replete with risk takers is teetering on the edge of default. Short of cash, one of China’s biggest asset managers has missed payments to investors. The broader economy has been threatened, and the confidence of consumers, businesses and investors undermined. So far, China’s typically hands-on policymakers have done little to ease anxieties and seem determined to reduce the country’s economic reliance on real estate. “What is happening in the Chinese property market is really unprecedented,” said Charles Chang, who heads corporate credit ratings for Greater China at Standard & Poor’s.

Persons: ”, Charles Chang Organizations: Greater, Standard Locations: China, Greater China

Government policymakers struggling to address the problem are now leaning on colleges to do more to find jobs for graduates. The job performance of school administrators was already tied to the percentage of their students who find employment after graduation. In some cases, the scrutiny is so intense that students resort to fabricating job offers to placate school officials. Over the last three decades, as China’s economy grew by leaps and bounds, more people attended college, seeing it as a pathway to promising careers. This year’s estimated graduating class of 11.6 million students is expected to be the largest ever, and future classes are expected to be even bigger.

Organizations: National Bureau of Statistics, China Macroeconomy, Renmin University of China Locations: China

Ms. Kim said she found that in general, American audiences thought the extensive back stories about the contestants slowed the show. Korean audiences liked the back stories because they wanted to know more about the contestants. She was puzzled, because this was fast for Korean audiences — but not fast enough for American sensibilities. In South Korea, the action often does not start until the fourth episode because shows often follow the cadence of a story arc suited to a 16-episode broadcast TV schedule. But it also shows the new challenge that awaits Netflix — once something is a global hit, there are global expectations.

Persons: Kim, Netflix — Organizations: Netflix Locations: United States, Britain, South Korea, Japan, “, Korean, Netflix’s U.S

Search resuls for: "More About Daisuke Wakabayashi"

12 mentions found