Word: firmness
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...plant the flag of Chinese capitalism around the world by purchasing stakes in foreign companies. China was flush with cash and full of optimism--naive optimism, it turned out. Beijing's fledgling sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. poured $3 billion into New York City--based private-equity firm Blackstone in return for a 10% stake in the company--just before the bottom fell out of U.S. debt and equity markets. That deal was followed by a $5 billion purchase of a 9.9% stake in Morgan Stanley, whose share price has since fallen by more than half...
...largest mining companies. If completed, the deal would be the biggest foreign purchase any Chinese company has ever made. In late February, Hunan Valin Iron & Steel Group of China purchased a $771 million stake in the Australian iron-ore exporter Fortescue Metals Group. And China Minmetals, another state-owned firm, offered to pay $1.2 billion in cash for Australia-based Oz Minerals, the world's second largest zinc miner. "These [Chinese] companies know this slump, while deep, will not last forever," says Xu Minle, a Shanghai-based analyst at BOC International. "China is now making strategic investments overseas...
China's huge appetite is making some foreign governments nervous. Australia blocked the Minmetals deal with Oz, citing national security, forcing the Chinese firm to revise the offer to exclude a valuable gold and copper mine. And Libya exercised its option to buy Venerex Energy, a producer based in Calgary, Canada, whose biggest asset is an oil and gas field 100 miles (160 km) southwest of Tripoli. That thwarted a $390 million bid that China National Petroleum Corp. had made to acquire Venerex. Beijing hasn't done itself any favors either. It blocked--on antitrust grounds that analysts considered flimsy...
...counties. Because the choice facing Margarito in the absence of a federal plan on immigration, it turns out, isn't St. Helens vs. Mexico but St. Helens vs. Woodburn, a heavily Hispanic town 60 miles (about 100 km) south with businesses that are still hiring (including at least one firm that just relocated from St. Helens...
...unemployment rate inches toward double digits, more Americans are left without health insurance and are looking for affordable alternatives in the supplement aisle. Vitamin sales rose nearly 8% this winter over the same period a year ago, according to the Chicago-based market-research firm Information Resources Inc., while the national chain Vitamin Shoppe reported a 20% surge in new customers seeking cheap ways to prevent illness and avoid expensive treatment...