Sinopec launches internal auditing reforms
Chinese oil giant Sinopec opened of four auditing offices in Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Wuhan and expanded its central auditing team from 50 to 200 employees, the Shanghai Securities Journal reported. Sinopec said the four regional bureaus would help centralize human resources, finance and property auditing. The initiative follows the launching of a government campaign to strengthen external and internal auditing of monopoly companies, which began when it sent a China Audit Office (CAO) team to the office of fellow oil giant China National Petroleum Corporation on March 15. CAO plans to audit 53 of the 157 state-owned enterprises under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) to validate auditing information accuracy, economic decision-making processes, regulatory compliance, suspicious activities and corporate asset management. CAO last audited Sinopec in 2004.

Coal mining inefficient: energy report
A just released report into China’s energy industry slammed China’s 30% average recovery rate for coal resources, which is less than half of the developed world rate, the Shanghai Securities Journal reported. The China Energy Blue Book 2007, which was released by the China Academy of Social Science, China’s recovery rate ranged from 40% in Shanxi province, China’s largest coal production base, to as low as 10-20% in other areas, meaning that for every ton of coal extracted, anywhere from five to 20 tons of coal is wasted. In contrast, the recovery rate reaches 80% in Australia, Germany and the US. The report said the low recovery rate was due to out-dated mining methods and the dominance of small inefficient coal mines, which account for more than 30% of China’s coal production but only deliver 10-15% recovery. The report said that if the coal recovery rate can be improved to an average of 50% by 2025, China’s available coal resources will to last 30 more years at an annual production rate of two billion tons.

China UnionPay signs up foreign banks
Payment services provider China UnionPay announced it had reached payment agreements with HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of East Asia and Citibank, the International Finance Journal reported. It did not disclose details of the deal, but said two of the four banks had already integrated their systems with China UnionPay’s system and that it was in talks with more foreign-funded banks. Because China UnionPay is China’s only cross-regional payment clearance provider, it provides an easy entry point to the mainland credit card market for foreign-funded banks. However, some are concerned that such cooperation could obstruct plans to issue dual-currency cards, which they feel could better satisfy the demand and consumption patterns of high-end clients.

Tulip Mega Media targets NASDAQ listing
Shanghai-based Outdoor LED screen operator Tulip Mega Media co-founder Zhuang Yong said in an interview with China Business News that the company had completed pre-listing auditing and confirmed an underwriter for a NASDAQ listing. Zhuang said the first global promotion would be held in Beijing next month and the company hoped to land on NASDAQ by the end of this year or early next. Tulip Mega operates large light emitting diode (LED) screens outside shopping malls in key commercial areas, ranging from 100 to 300 square meters in size. It now operates 14 LED screens in 12 key cities and three others are under construction, each over 150 square meters. The company recently gained US$30 million in financing from Credit Suisse, following a US$6.45 million (RMB50 million) investment from JC Decaux and Warburg Pincus. Their ownership stake in the firm has not been disclosed.