Member News

APPOINTMENTS

Jones Day announced that Alexandra Belaud-Guillet has joined its Shanghai office. Belaud-Guillet, who holds a PhD in private law, had previously worked for a French law firm in Shanghai since 2005. She used to teach civil and financial criminal law at Toulouse University, and still teaches classes on foreign direct investment law in China at Shanghai Normal University. Belaud-Guillet will represent multinational clients from various industries and provide follow-up advice to newly established, merged or acquired companies. Jones Day is one of the largest international law firms in China, with more than 125 lawyers at its Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taipei offices.

Savills announced Chris Yeung will take over as associate director for residential property at its Beijing office. He will be in charge of marketing, sales and leasing. Before joining the London-based property services provider, Yeung was the head of CB Richard Ellis Beijing's residential department. Yeung enters his new job with 21 years of experience in real estate and hotels in China, Hong Kong and Canada. Concerning his new job, Yeung said, "I hope to grow the Beijing residential business to provide project leasing and marketing services, and also hope to focus on the secondary market, with the aim of creating win-win solutions for developers and end users."

EXPANSIONS

Nordex plans to nearly quadruple its production capacity in China by 2011. Thomas Richterich, the German wind turbine maker's global chief executive, said annual production capacity in China will grow to 800 megawatts from the current 225 megawatts over this period. The company hopes the move will grant it a 15 percent market share, up from 3 percent in 2006, to better compete with industry leaders Vestas (which has 36 percent market share in China) and Gamesa (which has 24 percent). Nordex, which entered the Chinese market in 1995, has already installed more than 220 wind turbines in the country. Demand for these turbines is increasing, as Beijing continues to raise its expectations for China's wind power capacity. The current goal is to expand the country's annual capacity from 2.6 gigawatts in 2006 to 10 GW by 2010 and 80 gigawatts by 2020.

Siveco, Europe's largest supplier of computerised maintenance management systems, has joined the European Chamber in order to enhance its visibility among multinationals in China. The company has been providing its systems to facilities, infrastructure projects and manufacturing plants in China since 2004, and began offering maintenance management services this year. The company announced the release of an integrated supervision and maintenance system, the first of its kind in China. Siveco's general manager, Bruno Lhopiteau, has run the construction and maintenance group at the French Chamber of Commerce for several years. CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) announced the opening of a new office in Qingdao, representing the company's thirteenth full-service office in Greater China. "The opening of this office demonstrates our long-term commitment to China, as well as our ongoing efforts in relation to the expansion of geographical coverage," said Chris Brooke, CBRE Greater China's president. The Qingdao office will provide real estate services in the office, retail, residential, hotel, industrial and logistics sectors. The company recently appointed three senior executives to new positions. Greg Penn, Martin Woods and Jane Martin have been promoted to Senior Managing Director of Investment Properties, Executive Project Director of CBRE projects, and Senior Director of CBRE Consulting, respectively.

DEALS

Air France has signed an agreement with GoodPlanet, non-profit environmental organisation, to give customers the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions that result from their travels. Visitors to Air France's website will now find a carbon dioxide "emission calculator" and will be asked whether or not they want to donate €15 (US$22) per ton of carbon dioxide. The money, which is tax-deductible, will then be forwarded to GoodPlanet's Action Carbone project. Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Air France KLM's chairman, said, "As part of this policy, we are stepping up our fleet modernization programme, reasserting our support for the Kyoto Protocol and for the inclusion of air transport in the European Union's emissions trading scheme.

ArcelorMittal has reached an agreement with China Oriental Group to buy more than 820 million of the company's ordinary shares for about US$646 million (€441 million). ArcelorMittal is now the company's second-largest shareholder, with a 28 percent stake. China Oriental, which makes and sells steel products, is currently listed in Hong Kong. Last year the company sold 3.75 million tonnes of steel products and reported revenues of US$1.3 billion. ArcelorMittal hopes to strengthen its presence in China's steel industry with the deal.