Reuters buys stake in Chinese financial news web s
Jinfo Blog

6th April 2008

Item

Reuters http://www.reuters.com has taken a minority stake in China Web http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS185620+18-Mar-2008+RNS20080318. It is one of the largest online financial information providers in China and operates, primarily, through its Hexun web site www.hexun.com. This deal is one of the first from the new Reuters-Thomson merged company. The acquisition of Reuters by Thomson Corporation http://www.thomson.com/ has received regulatory approval and has been approved by both sets of shareholders. The acquisition is expected to close on April 17th In early March, the European Union and United States filed complaints at the World Trade Organisation over Chinese restrictions on foreign financial news providers working in the country. According to the documents filed with the WTO http://docsonline.wto.org/, foreign financial information suppliers are considered and treated as news agencies in China in which foreign investment is prohibited. Therefore foreign financial information suppliers are not permitted to set up a commercial presence in a form other than that of a representative office. No doubt the China Web investment is planned to overcome such restrictions.

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