Porsche’s plans to make China the company’s biggest market by 2014

Volkswagen AG (VOW)’s Porsche said it will begin selling Macan compact SUVs and delivering a $2.2 million supercar in China next year as part of its expansion plans in the world’s largest automobile market.  

Porsche, which counts the Cayenne sport utility vehicle as its best seller in China, will build on that success with the Macan, whose sales will begin in the second half of next year, Helmut Broeker, head of China operations, said in a Jan. 18 interview. The carmaker also plans to double its number of dealerships in the country to 95 in 2014 from 49 now.  

The new products are part of Porsche’s plans to make China the company’s biggest market by 2014. Porsche has benefited from a surge in demand for SUVs -- the fastest-growing segment in China’s auto market -- with the Cayenne accounting for about 65 percent of the company’s deliveries in the country.  

“The fact that they’re bringing a smaller version of the Cayenne SUV model is something that specifically in China will work quite well,” said Klaus Paur, the Shanghai-based global head of automotive coverage at research firm Ipsos. “It is catering to a segment that is fast growing. It is also part of a trend of luxury brands making their cars more accessible to the market.”

918 Spyder  

Porsche is taking orders for the 918 Spyder hybrid supercar, the first of which will be delivered to buyers in the first half of next year, Broeker said, declining to give sales figures for the automaker’s most expensive model. The car will cost 13.4 million yuan ($2.2 million) in China when including import and consumption taxes, according to the company. “The 918 Spyder of course is a great product for China,” he said. “There’s quite a lot of interest in China. But I don’t think you will see many cars on the road.”  

For this year, Porsche will open about 20 dealerships in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen, Foshan . The China head wants sales this year to be “few cars” above levels in 2012, when deliveries rose 28 percent to a record 31,205 units, he said, declining to be more specific.  

The maker of the 911 sports car will also start selling new editions of the four-door Panamera and Cayman this year. The Panamera is Porsche’s second-best selling model in China after the Cayenne with deliveries at about 9,000 units last year. The automaker has no plans to follow other foreign automakers in manufacturing vehicles in China to avoid import duties as customers expect their Porsches to be engineered and made in Germany, he said.

To promote its sports car image in China, the company will open a 135-million yuan handling circuit and training center in Shanghai in 2014, next to the city’s Formula One racetrack, according to the company.

 

Unbelievable isn't it????

Can we become a renminbi hub?

Singapore, the major commodities trading partner with China and regional treasury centre for multinationals, is following Hong Kong to become the second overseas RMB trade hub. However, experts believe that in the foreseeable future, Singapore will unlikely replace Hong Kong’s position as the primary RMB trade centre. 

Although Hong Kong – being part of China – is obviously the most ideal location for the country to experiment in its RMB liberalisation, China is now making attempts to take its local currency trading outside the country and Singapore is one of the best choices.  

The MAS also said that Singapore is well-prepared to facilitate trade-linked business flows with Mainland China. As Asia’s largest foreign exchange trading centre after Japan, Singapore houses many multi-national corporations’ treasury centre as well as offshore trading operations, and has all the necessary financial infrastructure needed to conduct and boost RMB trading. Besides several banks in Singapore have begun offering RMB banking services to their clients and expanded their product offerings to retail investors. 

Analysts believe Singapore possesses huge potential to become another RMB trading hub, not only because the pie of the offshore yuan business has grown so big – around 7 % of China’s international trade was settled in RMB during the first quarter of this year, but also because the Chinese government will not want to leave Singapore out as a centre to facilitate its trading ties with the whole Southeast Asia. However, in the mean time, they pointed out that Hong Kong will remain as the paramount RMB trading centre, due to both political and economic reasons. 

From the political side, the Chinese government still wants to take the yuan liberalisation slowly and keep it under control. A rapid yuan appreciation will likely harm numerous Chinese businesses that have long-term sales contracts denominated in U.S. dollars. 

From the economic side, Hong Kong has taken an early bird advantage, since it is so far the only jurisdiction outside Mainland China with an RMB clearing banking presence. Thanks to that, Hong Kong banks took the major share of RMB deposit flows from Mainland China through trade channels. 

Whatever it is, this is an exciting time for us!!!As Singapore’s RMB ambitions grow and China looks to expand RMB’s international influence, the two governments are taking further steps to promote RMB settlement in Singapore. Hmmm.... time to stock up? ....lol.... 

Amazon Wins Dismissal of Apple’s Claim

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, today granted Amazon’s request to throw out one claim in Apple’s lawsuit alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition over the Amazon Appstore for Android, a service begun in March that sells applications for the Kindle Fire and devices running Google Inc. ’s Android software.  

Apple is seeking a court order to block Amazon from using the term. Amazon has argued the words are a generic term that Apple doesn’t have exclusive rights to use. The iPhone maker, which started its APP STORE in 2008, said Amazon’s use of the term was false advertising because it deceives customers into believing that Amazon’s service has the qualities of Apple’s applications store. Apple maintained this could divert its revenue to Amazon. 

Judge’s Finding 

“The court finds no support for the proposition that Amazon has expressly or impliedly communicated that its Appstore for Android possesses the characteristics and qualities that the public has come to expect from the Apple APP Store and/or Apple products,” Hamilton said.  

Apple hasn’t shown that Amazon’s advertising attempt to mimic Apple’s, failed to show that Amazon made any false statement, and presented no evidence that customers were misled by Amazon’s use of the term, Hamilton said.  She ruled only on Amazon’s request to eliminate the false advertising claim.

 

What's next? We need to stop calling an apple, "apple" just incase got sued by APPLE Inc. ??????....lol...

CEO

Someone try to convince me why one person like those CEOs deserves such an obscene amount of money while others in their company has to take the bus everyday!

The argument is often that Because if they don't make that much money they'll leave, and we can't have that for some reason. Apparently there aren't people just as capable (or maybe even more capable) willing to do the same work for much less. I guess that whole saving money on employee expenses thing only matters for those on the lower end?

No kidding, this is completely ridiculous right! What contribution can one person make to the company that makes them worth a few thousands times more than their employees? Like the CEO is making $30,000,000 and they can't find someone to do the same job for $15,000,000?

Again they said Because the shareholders and board decided they're worth that much. Make your company $billions and you could get your name on the list. Besides you have football and basketball players receiving multiple times what the CEO's are receiving. Is that ok? You have actors receiving 10s of millions of dollars for movies any high school student could do. Is that fair? How about singers like Madonna?

But we have seen CEOs that lose their company billions and still get a bonus, results don't seem to count for CEO pay. Their incentives have little to do with reaching long term goals. In fact the structure of these incentives often encourage them to do things that are short term profitable but long term bad. It even leads to questionable if not illegal actions.

Also you will find that they make millions in incentive pay even when profits and stock value are going the wrong way. Look at some of the worst performing companies that you can find and then look up the CEOs incentive compensation. You can start with the ones that have gone bankrupt.

Argument is, it's a market economy, and anyone deserves as much as they can convince someone to pay them in a competitive environment. That's true for CEO, professional athletes, singers, or anyone else.

However I think it's more like:
CEO: "Okay, Company X, I think I deserve $500,000, a nice benefits package and two cars."

President of the Board: "Gee, you're a great CEO, but that sounds a bit extreme..."

CEO: "By the way, I think you guys all deserve more money too."

President of the Board: " I like the way you think! You're hired!