BizChina

With its steaming economy and surging ranks of billionaires, China has become the fastest-growing market for Airbus' private jet business, with at least 25 corporate jets to be sold in the next five years.

"The demand for corporate jets is already very high, and the government is more supportive of corporate aviation," Francois Chazelle, vice-president of worldwide sales at Europe's Airbus Corporate Jets, said at a news conference on Monday.

A flight attendant in an Airbus A318 Elite business jet on display at the Business Aviation Center during the Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress in Hong Kong on March 9.

Eric Chen, senior vice-president of Airbus China, added: "Five aircraft a year is a conservative figure. We have already sold two in the first quarter of this year in China."

Shenyang Yuanda Aluminium Industry Engineering Co. is planning to seek listing approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange's listing committee April 7 for its planned US$400 million-US$500 million Hong Kong initial public offering, a person familiar with the situation said Monday.

The listing plan of the Chinese company comes as Tokyo-listed SBI Holdings Inc. is seeking to raise up to US$328 million in an IPO before listing in Hong Kong on April 14, according to a term sheet seen by The Wall Street Journal on Monday, in the first listing by a Japanese company in Hong Kong.

Yuanda Aluminium, established in 1993, makes curtain walls, a type of outer covering for buildings,as well as metal roofs, shading systems and glass skylights.

The company, which has a total annual production capability of 12 million square meters, built the membrane structure for China's National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, and the National Olympic Swimming Center in Beijing, and has international branches in more than a dozen countries.

Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd, the developer controlled by Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, may turn to its Hutchison Whampoa Ltd unit for growth this year as government curbs slow gains in property sales.

The world's second-biggest developer by market value is expected to say 2010 underlying profit rose 25 percent to HK$19.2 billion ($2.46 billion) on higher sales before the curbs, according to the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Hutchison's earnings are expected to rise 15 percent to HK$15 billion, based on the average of 11 analysts.

Li, nicknamed "superman" by the local media for his investing prowess, is expected to tap Hutchison's industries ranging from utilities and mobile phone networks to oil in 52 countries and regions after Hong Kong stepped up property measures in November to ease speculation in a city where housing prices have risen more than 65 percent since the start of 2009. Cheung Kong sold about HK$30 billion worth of apartments last year, according to Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch & Co unit.

Jack Ma is furious. It's been two weeks since the lead founder of Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce enterprise, told the world about the scandal at his company. Now, in his first interview since, he's leaping out of his chair, still worked up about the 100 salespeople he fired for cheating thousands of foreign merchants--or looking the other way. Their crime: knowingly setting up fraudulent sellers and certifying them as so-called Gold Suppliers, who accepted payments for but never delivered popular consumer electronics like laptops and flat-screen monitors. "What I'm angry about is [the salespeople] suspect--they know, probably--the [dealer] is probably not right, but they just assign the contract," says Ma, speaking rapidly and emphatically. "This is the trust issue."

And by far the biggest setback to rock Alibaba, a family of Web operations--including business-to-business sales, a consumer marketplace, e-payments and data services--in its 12-year history. Ma is tiny (5 feet, 3 inches), slight (he weighs just over 100 pounds) and full of coiled energy. He says he first learned of the skulduggery from a Jan. 22 e-mail from Jane Jiang, a cofounder who late last year took over the trust and safety unit of Alibaba.com, the group's business-to-business platform. Her missive shocked him and a small group of executives. "Ta ma de," she wrote (rough translation: "F---!"). Ma called her immediately and asked, "What happened?"

Late that night Ma called together senior colleagues at a bar near the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, his hometown. "Then we had a long talk, and I said, 'Wow, we've got to pay attention to this.'" So began an internal investigation and the most painful month of Ma's career. "I'm thinking, 'What am I going to do if that is true?'"