Exponential -- June 14, 2015

The global round-up
Exponential the Skillbridge Magazine
The Briefing
Alibaba’s Jack Ma Visits US to lure
businesses into China
Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma visited
New York and Chicago to pitch China’s
middle class as a growth opportunity for
American business and his e-commerce
company. Ma is looking for revenue
beyond China, where the nation’s
economy is projected to grow at its
slowest pace since 1990. One strategy
is to position Alibaba as a cross-border
e-commerce solution, enabling China’s
557m Internet users to buy things from
anywhere in the world. Costco and
Macy’s are among US companies who
already reach Chinese shoppers
through Alibaba.
Ethiopia looking strong to investors
The recent World Economic Forum on
Africa put the spotlight on Ethiopia,
where the economy is flourishing and
the government is embracing select
foreign capital. Executives from General
Electric Co., Dow Chemical, Standard
Bank Group, and MasterCard attending
the June 3-5 gathering in Cape Town
singled out the East African nation as a
market with strong potential. Ethiopia
was Africa’s eighth-largest recipient of
foreign direct investment last year, up
from 14th position in 2013, Ethiopia’s
economy is expected to expand 8.6%
this year and 8.5% in 2016 according to
the IMF.
Tesco considers selling its South
Korean operations for $7bn
Retailer and supermarket giant Tesco
PLC is considering selling its South
Korea retail operations, its largest
business outside the United Kingdom, to
raise up to $7bn to fund its turnaround
efforts. Tesco hired HSBC Holdings PLC
to manage a process to sell the retail
operation, which is expected to receive
interest from private-equity firms.
Tesco’s global operations were shaken
by a series of blunders in the UK,
including an accounting scandal,
massive write-downs, as well as
management upheaval.
waklingsf via flickr
Chinese want to build Peru-Brazil railway
Beijing hopes to build an interoceanic
railway between Brazil and Peru that could
make for faster, cheaper transportation of
local commodities to resource-thirsty
Chinese markets. The proposed rail link,
known as the Twin Ocean Railroad, would
connect Porto do Açu, a Brazilian Atlantic
port, with Peru’s Puerto Ilo on the Pacific
Ocean through some 3,300 miles of rail.
The railway would cut transportation time
and reduce the cost of shipping grain from
Brazil to China by about $30 a ton.
Shenzhen Airlines will purchase 46 planes
from Boeing for $4.3bn
Shenzhen Airlines will purchase 46 planes
from Boeing for $4.3bn, according to the
carrier's parent Air China. Shenzhen Airlines,
which currently owns a fleet of "more than
100" aircraft, according to its website, will
receive the planes in stages between 2016
and 2020. The deal for the Boeing 737
planes increases Air China's fleet by 6%. Air
China took control of Shenzhen Airlines in
April 2010 in a bid to expand its presence in
southern China.
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