Business news with words deal+purchase+yuan. 5 news.

CHINA Merchants Securities increased its stake in Bosera Asset Management to 73 percent in a 6.32-billion-yuan (US$854 million) deal, Bosera said in a statement late on Wednesday. China Merchants paid 130 yuan per share to buy an additional 48 percent of Bosera from Kinghing Trust & Investment Co Ltd. With the deal, China Merchants also set a record for the biggest purchase of a stake in the fund industry. The previous record was set in October by Shanxi Haixin Group when it paid 1.18 billion yuan, or 56.20 yuan per share, to buy a 21-percent stake in Yinhua Fund Management Co Ltd. Kinghing Trust & Investment Co Ltd was shut down in 2006 for violating rules and bad management. The securities regulator announced it would auction Kinghing's shares in Bosera on November 19. "The move shows the ambition of China Merchants to expand and its confidence on the prospect of China's fund industry," said Zhang Qi, an analyst with Haitong Securities Co. "The share price for

NEUSOFT Group Ltd will acquire its parent through a share swap, which will double the market value of the Shanghai-listed software vendor to 520 million yuan (US$70.27 million), Neusoft said in a statement yesterday. Chinese software firms, which grew most rapidly, need to boost economies of scale to compete internationally, the Ministry of Information Industry said. Neusoft has received approval from regulators, including the China Securities Regulatory Commission, to buy its parent's assets via a share swap of 1 to 3.5, according to the company's statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. After the purchase, the firm will be valued at 520 million yuan from 280 million yuan now. "The deal is a milestone in the company's history and it will continue to grow through the resources acquired from the parent firm," said Neusoft's chairman Liu Jiren in a Chinese-language statement.

SICHUAN Changhong Electric Co, China's second-biggest TV maker, has grabbed the lion's share of government-financed home appliance sales in rural areas. China promised to give farmers subsidies, about 13 percent, for buying household electrical appliances, in a bid to stimulate sluggish rural consumption and reduce the rising trade surplus, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce said over the weekend. "We are a major player in the deal and we occupy at least 50 percent shares of the TV sales (in the subsided sales in the rural areas)," Chen Ning, Changhong's vice president, told Shanghai Daily yesterday. Changhong will provide TVs, which costs less than 1,500 yuan (US$202) each, and some mobile phones for the subsidized purchase program. The pilot program will be launched in Shandong, Henan and Sichuan, the three major agricultural provinces, according to Chen. Farmers in the provinces can buy color TV sets, refrigerators and mobile phones with

THE country's biggest listed electronics maker is to sell its loss-making computer business to an overseas investor. The Shenzhen-listed TCL Corp said yesterday it would dispose of its PC operations with the sale of an 82-percent stake in the unit. Shares of TCL stopped trading yesterday to await a further announcement. TCL's computer unit lost 67.8 million yuan (US$8.9 million) last year on sales of 2.14 billion yuan, the Huizhou-based company told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange earlier. The move follows Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC business and Acer's purchase of Gateway. TCL made a profit in the first half of the year, helped by cost cutting. Its net profit was 45.1 million yuan compared with a net loss of 746.4 million yuan a year earlier. After the sale of the PC unit, TCL will focus on the TV and telephone business. The company recently announced a deal to sell the BlackBerry phone in China next year.

CHINA'S Minsheng Banking Corp will buy 20 percent of UCBH Holdings Inc by 2009, the first stake purchase by a Chinese mainland bank in a US bank. Minsheng, China's first non-state-owned bank and the seventh-largest bank by market value, will buy 5.4 million shares of UCBH shares for US$96 million, taking up a 4.9 percent stake, according to a statement released by UCBH, the biggest bank serving Chinese communities in the United States. Next year, Minsheng will raise its ownership to 9.9 percent and by June 2009, the bank may increase its holding to 20 percent, the statement said. UCBH Holdings Inc, with US$10.65 billion in assets as of June 30 this year, is the holding company for United Commercial Bank, which is a leading bank in the United States serving the Chinese communities and American companies doing business in Greater China. The company has 70 branches in the United States and one in Hong Kong. It has also opened representative offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Beijing-based Minsheng has US$112 billion in assets and 298 branches. UCBH will use proceeds from the initial sale for a pending acquisition in China, according to the statement. That part of the deal will close in the fourth quarter, the statement said. In March, UCBH said it will buy China's Business Development Bank Ltd for US$205 million to gain a toe-hold in the world's fastest-growing major economy. Shares of the Shanghai-listed Minsheng Bank surged 0.69 yuan (9 US cents), or 4.36 percent, by 11:30am today, which is the first trading day after the week long National Day holiday. The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, jumped 2.99 percent, or 166.19 points, to close at 5,718.49.