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TRADE WARS
China's trade surplus with US jumps, global imports surge
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) June 8, 2018

China's Ant Financial raises $14bn to become biggest fintech firm
Shanghai (AFP) June 8, 2018 - Chinese digital payments giant Ant Financial said Friday it had raised $14 billion in its latest financing round, making it the world's largest fintech company ahead of an expected mammoth IPO.

The cash infusion for Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba, provides fresh resources as its payments platform Alipay battles Tencent for supremacy in the vast and growing market for global digital transactions and other financial services.

Ant said in a statement that the funds will be invested in new technologies and to accelerate Alipay's expansion abroad and into new sectors.

Alipay and Tencent's WeChat Pay are China's online-payments leaders, profiting handsomely as consumers throw themselves into e-commerce, ordering goods and services via mobile apps and online.

Ant Financial did not provide a total value for the company, but Bloomberg News recently reported it was raising funds at a $150 billion valuation.

Bloomberg said the latest round makes the company, based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, the world's largest fintech firm.

Ant Financial is believed to be planning an IPO expected to become one of the largest in years, amid speculation it could list on one of China's two exchanges.

Alibaba and other big tech companies such as Baidu and Tencent previously chose to list on Wall Street or in Hong Kong.

But China has been making moves to encourage future listings on domestic markets to keep a new generation of technology titans closer to home as it pushes to challenge the US for primacy in the strategic sector.

Ant Financial says Alipay and its overseas partners in several countries serve around 870 million annual active users globally, and over 15 million small businesses in China.

Ant said the latest financing came from unnamed domestic investors, as well as foreign entities including Singapore wealth funds GIC and Temasek Holdings, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and global private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

China's trade surplus with the United States jumped in May, official data showed Friday, worsening the imbalance at the centre of tensions between the economic titans while Beijing's advantage with the rest of the world shrank.

The figures may reinforce Washington's determination to move forward with new tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of Chinese imports as early as next week.

Beijing has warned those tariffs would void agreements made between the two powers over months of trade negotiations between the world's two largest economies.

The record imbalances are at the heart of US President Donald Trump's anger at what he describes as Beijing's unfair trade practices that are hurting American companies and destroying jobs.

Trade is also expected to dominate upcoming G7 talks -- which do not include China -- with Canada and leading European nations warning Trump they will not back down over tariffs.

For the first five months of the year, China's surplus with the US crossed the $100 billion mark, hitting $104.8 billion.

Customs data showed the surplus grew 11.7 percent on-year to $24.6 billion in May, with exports to the US rising by about 12 percent and imports up 11 percent.

With the wider world, Chinese demand has outpaced its shipment growth, with its surplus of $24.9 billion for the month down 38.9 percent from last year.

China's exports grew 12.6 percent in May while imports jumped 26 percent on-year, outpacing forecasts of 11.1 percent growth and 18.0 percent respectively, by analysts pooled by Bloomberg News.

"The particularly strong May figures are due to uncertainties from the trade negotiations," said Iris Pang, an economist at ING Groep NV in Hong Kong to Bloomberg News.

"Exports risks are mounting, so the exporters expedited importing components for re-export."

- Trade tensions -

On Thursday in Washington, the US announced it had reached a deal with Beijing to ease sanctions that brought Chinese smartphone maker ZTE to the brink of collapse, a possible indication of progress in fraught trade talks.

The ZTE settlement came just days after Beijing reportedly offered to ramp up purchases of American goods by $70 billion to help cut the yawning trade imbalance with the United States -- moving part-way towards meeting a major demand of Trump.

Trump has demanded a $200 billion reduction in its trade deficit with China over two years.

Despite the settlement, there was no sign Trump had veered from plans to impose as much as $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports to punish Beijing for its alleged theft of American technology and know-how.

Despite some positive signs for a trade deal with the US, analysts cautioned China faced other trade hurdles.

"Chinese trade growth is still likely to edge down over the coming year as the global economy loses momentum and headwinds to domestic demand from slower credit growth intensify," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China watcher at Capital Economics.


Related Links
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TRADE WARS
China offers to buy $70 bn of US goods, says official
Washington (AFP) June 7, 2018
China has offered to buy $70 billion worth of US goods if Washington drops plans to impose tariffs in return, an official in President Donald Trump's administration told AFP on Wednesday, confirming an earlier report. Top Chinese economic advisor Liu He made the offer during weekend trade talks in Beijing with a US delegation led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The new purchases would include soybeans, natural gas, crude oil and coal. The Commerce ... read more

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