By Rachel Barron

Wafer manufacturer LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) said Thursday it had signed a $32 million deal to buy silicon reactors from solar-equipment maker GT Solar (NSDQ: SOLR).

The news in China biotech last week revolved around two major topics: trial results/approvals and deals. On the test results front, Bridge Laboratories made a long-awaited announcement: the FDA accepted its China-developed data for review (see story). Bridge submitted data from primate toxicology tests conducted in its Beijing animal lab for an unnamed US biotech client. The data was in support of an IND package. Bridge said the acceptance validates its business plan (and, even though Bridge didn’t say this, the business plan of a large part of the China CRO industry): providing a fully GLP compliant facility in China capable of conducting GLP studies in support of worldwide regulatory submissions at a lower cost than labs in the West.

Simcere Pharma (SCR) reported positive interim results from a Phase IV trial of its patented anti-cancer drug Endu (see story). The drug displayed both safety and efficacy results that were in line with Endu’s Phase III trial. An anti-angiogenesis drug, Endu is a modified version of recombinant human endostatin. It is already approved for use in China against non-small cell lung cancer; however, the SFDA asked for a post-approval trial to further validate the drug’s usefulness. The interim data came from the initial 648 patients. Simcere has treated 2,000 patients in the test, but full results will not be available until 2010.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index has fallen around 60% this year, the worst-perfoming major stock index in the world.

Many investors tend to use iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) or PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter USX China (PGJ) as an ETF for Chinese stocks.

I have a good friend who has been in the business for many years who always has a good story to tell. Many years ago he worked for a now defunct bond house with the name Berkeley Capital. We were in some financial district watering hole and someone else in the group asked my friend how much capital Berkely Capital had.  My friend, always an Irish wit, responded with a question of his own. He inquired of the gentleman who had questioned him if he had ever been to Lake Hiawatha , New Jersey. The original questioner replied in the negative and and asked why that was important. My friend responded with the answer that there is no lake in Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey.

I thought of that humorous story after reading the following article in the New York Times this morning.

Another terrible day on the stock market saw the SSE Composite, led kicking and screaming by energy and financial companies, trade more or less straight down by 3.2% to close the day at 2203.  The brilliant autumn weather in Beijing (and the best week for air quality I have seen in seven years of living here) seems to have bypassed the market altogether.  

Remember back last winter, when the BHP Billiton (BHP) bid to takeover Rio Tinto  (RTP) was sending China's steelmakers into a tizzy?

They were terrified that the union of BHP, the third largest iron ore producer globally, and Rio Tinto, the second, would create a de facto monopoly on their industry's most vital raw ingredient. Well, it looks like Chinese steel producers won't have to wait for that most disadvantageous of unions (for them at least) to watch iron ore prices go through the roof.

Here is a list of the best performing American Depository Receipt [ADR] stocks Year-To-Date:

Genesis Pharmaceuticals Enterprises (GNPH.OB) has effected a 40-to-1 reverse stock split and changed its ticker symbol to GNPH from the previous symbol GTEC. As before, Genesis Pharma trades on the OTC Bulletin Board Exchange. After the reverse split, Genesis has 10.3 million shares outstanding.

Cao Wubo, Chairman and CEO of Genesis, said in a statement that the reverse split was part of a strategic initiative to move its listing to a “senior” stock exchange in the US.

China Natural Gas (CHNG.OB) is a small natural gas utility company in Shaanxi Province, PRC. It is a Delaware registered company that transports, transmits and distributes natural gas to residential, industrial and commercial customers in China.

CHNG also operates natural gas filing stations in Xian. Yes, there are cars using natural gas instead of gasoline in China. According to the Chinese government (2006), Xian has 5,000 buses and 20,000 taxis using natural gas as fuel. CHNG is opening up more natural gas stations all over the region. It just opened 4 new stations in this December. Of course, CHNG has a “monopoly” license from the Chinese government as the sole natural gas provider in its region. Financially, the company has grown more than 200% in both revenue and earnings for the last couple of years. I have no doubt that the company has great growth potential. You can check out the company website here. 

By Julian Murdoch

Pretty much every bullish commodity story in the last few years has mentioned one common word: China. China's insatiable demand for energy, materials - anything that drives growth - is legend. So you'd think that a local player - one who could provide the same product as global companies, but without having to deal with export/import issues and costs - would be a great play.

The amount of wind power that the United States can generate has doubled to more than 20 gigawatts in the last two years, the American Wind Energy Association said Wednesday.

Renewable-energy policies, such as state mandates that require utilities to get a certain amount of their energy from renewable sources, have helped drive the growth of U.S. wind from 10 gigawatts in 2006.

In 2007 approximately 280, 000 Chinese children under the age of five died from preventable diseases caused by lack of clean drinking water.

According to the UN, contaminated drinking water causes five times the number of child deaths than are caused by HIV/AIDS.

The Coca-Cola Company (KO) (可口可乐, hopefully “Coca-Cola” in Chinese) made headlines Wednesday as they announced intent to acquire Chinese juice maker China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd. for approximately $2.5 billion. This would be the second largest acquisition in Coke’s long and storied history. Coke’s largest acquisition was for the non-carbonated beverage lines of Energy Brands, aka Glaceau, makers of Vitamin Water. Even more noteworthy, if it passes Chinese regulators, it would be the largest purchase of control of a Chinese company by a foreign company. This is clearly further evidence that Coke is trying to diversify away from carbonated soda drinks for healthier non-carbonated drinks. Chief among the reason for this shifting focus is that soda simply does not demonstrate the same growth potential as the non-carbonated drink market. (For more on this strategy, look at our Feb 13^th post Coke’s Strategy Moves Away From the Fizz).

Coke is also trying to capitalize on the buzz generated by heavily marketing Coca-Cola during the Beijing Olympic Games. Coke has for many years been a huge advertising presence in the Olympics, but they outdid themselves with this marketing effort. Already a successful global band—perhaps the global brand with more than 60% of sales from overseas— Coke appeared to be successful in gaining traction in the Chinese market through ads, sampling stations, and even signing hugely popular Yao Ming to an endorsement deal. Coke has not released spending on the games yet, but some estimates are as high as $400 million. We think it’s a smart strategy tying your brand to the Olympics, in the world’s most populous country with an almost unanimous sense of pride over hosting the games. This deal for Huiyuan Juice Group—industry leader in Chinese fruit juices with nearly 11% of China market share—further reveals how important China is to Coke’s global growth strategy.

The Chinese stock markets declined further Wednesday, with the SSE Composite punching its way through the psychologically important 2300 in the first hour of the day, to trade as low as 2248 in the later afternoon (with 2500 often cited as another important “barrier”, below which the government was presumed to intervene) for a total loss of 2.5%.  It recovered part of its losses in the last hour of trading to close at 2278, down 1.2% for the day.

As the market continues to fall, it is getting closer to the bottom, although no one has any idea how much further it will fall. It is difficult for anyone to call the bottom of this market.

Electric-powered bike maker Zongshen Power Systems Inc. (ZNGSF.PK) -  which is hoping to make some big noise in the Chinese motorized e-bike market - is still a “show me” story, says Canaccord analyst Michael Deng, pointing to disappointing sales volume in the company’s second quarter.

After Zongshen posted earnings for the quarter of C$0.01 per share, Mr. Deng said in a research note to clients:

Roche (RHHBY.PK) announced that Xeloda, an oral chemotherapy drug, was granted SFDA approval for an additional indication: gastric cancer. Xeloda, which is inactive in pill form, becomes active when it comes into contact with a naturally occurring protein called thymidine phosphorylase [TP]. TP transforms the ingredients into 5-FU, a widely used chemotherapy. Some tumors contain high lives of TP – higher than normal tissue – which causes a concentration of the cell-killing effect in the tumor.

Xeloda is also used for metastatic breast cancer and metastatic colorectal cancer. Overall in its clinical tests, Xeloda has exhibited lower side effects and greater efficacy than IV chemotherapies. It is also easier to administer.

Goldman Sachs usually provides investors with strong returns from IPOs it lead underwrites. However, China Nepstar Chain Drugstore (NPD) turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments to the firm's credit.

Since coming public in November of last year at more than $16 a share, NPD has cratered. Last week, the stock may have reached a crescendo in price depreciation by hitting an all-time intra-day low of 3.87 following the company's Q2 earnings report. This capped off 17 straight days of selling on the unpopular drugstore chain.

Coca Cola (KO) has bid $2.4 billion for HK-listed fruit juice company Huiyuan Juice Group, offering to pay HK$12.20 per share. Compare this to the company's previous closing price of HK$4.14 and you'll realize the amazing premium built into this deal.

This also happens to be the second largest acquisition in Coke's history and the biggest purchase of the control of a Chinese company by a foreign entity. Just goes to show how U.S. big businesses are currently viewing opportunities in China.

Maybe it's time to try something new. And maybe it's already starting.

Last week the New York Times reported: