BizChina

Luxury carmaker Aston Martin launched its flagship store in Beijing Sunday evening in a push to increase its presence in the premier Asian market.

The store, located at 66 Jinbao Street, Chaoyang District, is more than twice as big as Beijing's other two Aston Martin stores and is the largest in Asia Pacific. The 500 sq m showroom will display seven of the luxury vehicles each costing roughly 1.3 million yuan.

"(Beijing) is a representation of the history of China, of the life in China, and this is why we are here," CEO of Aston Martin, Ulrich Bez told METRO Sunday.

Despite the economic recession's impact on luxury good sales, Bez said Aston Martin continues to expand worldwide and the Asia market is one of the fastest growing.

"Whatever the situation is in the economy if you have a great product, you will be successful and if you have a bad product you will suffer," he said.

Taobao 's gross turnover in 2009 is expected to exceed 200 billion yuan ($ 29.3 billion), and an executive committee is to be established to push for the success of the 'Big Taobao' strategy, according to a spokesperson for Alibaba Group on Jan. 25.

The parent company also expects Taobao to double its turnover in 2010 to 400 billion yuan ($58.6 billion), surpassing that of eBay Inc., said John Spelich, Alibaba 's vice president of international corporate affairs.

Alibaba Group is also strengthening the leadership of Life.alipay, which will coordinate with the 'Big Taobao' strategy to improve China's online trusted secure sytem for ecommerce payment.

Chinese equities fell for the third consecutive day Tuesday, driving the benchmark index down to a nearly three-month low as fears of policy tightening continued to dampen property shares.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.42 percent, or 75.02 points, to close at 3,019.39 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index lost 2.47 percent, or 307.63 points, to close at 12,162.56 points.

Combined turnover totaled 181.72 billion yuan (26.61 billion U.S. dollars), expanding from 155.26 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 837 to 55 in Shanghai and 789 to 66 in Shenzhen.

CNNC International Ltd, the listed unit of China's largest nuclear power plants operator China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC), said yesterday it would buy a stake in a uranium mine in Niger from its parent for HK$414 million ($53.3 million), and fund the deal by issuing convertible notes.

The company will acquire Ideal Mining Ltd from its parent CNNC. Ideal Mining holds a 37.2 percent stake in the Azelik uranium mine in Niger, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong bourse yesterday.

The Azelik mine comprises three uranium deposits and has an estimated mine life of 17 years. It is estimated that the mine contains resources of around 11,227 tons of uranium, said the statement.

Production is expected to start in the second half of this year with an estimated annual production capacity of around 700 tons when complete, it said.

Philip Li, an executive with CNNC International, told Dow Jones that the company would look at acquisition opportunities for uranium resources in Kazakhstan to support the rapid development of China's nuclear power industry.