Asia

The deal, which including debt values Smithfield Foods at $7.1 billion, represents the single largest takeover of a US company by a Chinese firm in history.

A series of high profile food scares in China has resulted in an ever-increasing demand for foreign food products in the country. Home to the world’s largest population, China is also the biggest consumer of pork on the planet.

Following the agreement reached in August between South and North Korea to reopen the jointly operated Kaesong industrial estate on the border between the two uneasy neighbours, the thaw has started. The first cars and trucks crossed the border on September 16 carrying more than 800 South Korean managers, and raw materials for the factories.

The owner of beverage firm Orangina Schweppes has paid GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) £1.35 billion for the brands, which it hopes will allow the business to expand into new markets.

Ribena and Lucozade saw combined sales totalling about £500m last year, however GSK decided to offload the brands in April following a strategic review that advised a renewed focus on its core pharmaceuticals business.

The news comes after the world’s second largest economy has taken significant steps to boost its economy after its growth rate slowed for two quarters in a row.

"We are seeing clearer signs of economic conditions improving," said Haibin Zhu, chief China economist at JP Morgan in Hong Kong.  "The recent shift in policy stance and more concrete policy announcements have been key reasons behind the recovery in the sector.”

The Japanese carrier is to pay 2.5 billion yen ($25 million) to purchase the stake. The purchase represents the first time a foreign airline has invested in a Myanmar-based commercial airline.

Firms have been keen to enter Myanmar, seen as a key growth market, after political reforms led to the lifting of international sanctions. ANA resumed flights between the two countries in October last year after a twelve-year hiatus.

Profits rose 1.5 percent, compared to the same time last year, to 63.1bn yuan ($10.3 billion) in the six months to June, with the results buoyed by a strong rise in wireless data revenue. Operating revenue meanwhile rose ten percent to 303.1bn yuan, even in the face of stiff competition from its fellow state-owned rivals and the country’s slower economic growth.

The company said its subscriber base rose by around 30 million to 740 million users at the end of 2012.

The company’s net profit for the April-to-June period came in at a better-than-expected $174 million, up from $141 million a year ago, boosted by the doubling in the sale of mobile devices.

For the six months to the end of June the company made an operating profit of £1.4 billion, a rise of 22 percent compared to the same period last year. In the first half of 2013 almost sales of Prudential’s sales came from Asia, where new business profit in the region also rose by 20 percent.

It was in December that Prudential said it had already doubled its Asian operating profit and increased the amount of cash that its Asian business sent back to the group to its £300m target for cash remittances.

The venture would involve the combining of Tesco's 131 stores in China with CRE's almost 3,000 Vanguard stores to create what they say would be the leading multi-format retailer in China.

CRE, which would control 80 percent of the new chain, said that the venture would bring together its "deep understanding of local customers, established nationwide infrastructure and proven track record as a partner with Tesco's global retail expertise, international sourcing scale and supply chain capabilities.”