Shanghai-based online grocery platform Dingdong, which listed in the US last summer, trimmed losses by 12% in Q4 of 2021, as the firm battles with better-funded rivals, reports Caixin. In the last three months of 2021, Dingdong reported a net loss of RMB 1.1 billion yuan ($172 million), according to its earnings report released on Tuesday.

Dingdong, which is backed by big-name investors such as SoftBank and Sequoia Capital, said it ramped up efforts to rein in operating costs and improve gross margins. Operating expenses rose 48% year-on-year in the fourth quarter to RMB 6.5 billion, far slower than the 117% rise in those costs in the third quarter.

The company said in a separate statement that gross margins stood at 27.7% in the fourth quarter, 9.5% higher than in the prior quarter, which it put down to diversifying its broader product range and increasing sales of its own brands, which provide higher margins.

Chinese fast-fashion firm Shein is expanding its presence in Singapore after making a Singapore-based business its de facto holding company, reports Reuters. According to a document, Chris Xu, Shein’s founder and CEO, has also been granted permanent residency of the south-east Asian city-state.

Shein, which Xu started in 2008 in Nanjing and has since grown into a global fashion marketplace, last year de-registered its main business, Nanjing Top Plus Information Technology Co Ltd, a Chinese corporate filing shows.

The developments are in line with what has previously been reported by Reuters, which are revived plans by Shein to list in New York this year and Xu looking at a change in citizenship to bypass tougher Chinese rules for offshore IPOs.

The chief executive of Yum China, the company that operates KFC and Pizza Hut in China, said on Wednesday that the company’s network of outlets rose through the pandemic, despite the size of its workforce staying the same, reports Caixin. “We increased our stores but without increasing the total number of staff,” said Joey Watt on a call with analysts and investors, highlighting Yum China’s investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies to support operations and training.

Many stores now feature touch-screen panels where customers place orders. In several Chinese cities, KFC robots serve up soft serve ice cream cones. Elsewhere, take-out orders can be picked up from digital lockers without contact with staff. Watt noted that the company now has around 420,000 full- and part-time staff, roughly the same number as in 2016 when it was spun off by US parent Yum Brands.

Over that same period, the number of outlets climbed 56%, reaching 11,788 as of December with the addition of a net 1,282 outlets in 2021. Meanwhile, between 2016 and 2021, annual net profits nearly doubled to $990 million, though last year’s figure included a one-off gain from a joint venture in the city of Hangzhou.

China Cinda Asset Management, one of China’s major state-owned asset managers, has announced plans to withdraw from an agreement to purchase a 20% stake in Ant Group’s consumer finance unit, worth around RMB 6 billion ($943.83 million), reports Reuters. The purchase would have given Cinda a 24% stake in Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance, making the asset manager its second-largest investor. Cinda already owns a 4% stake in the Ant unit through a subsidiary.

“After further prudent commercial consideration and negotiation with (Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance), the company proposed not to participate in the share subscription,” Cinda said in a filing to the stock exchange. Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance is under regulatory pressure to fold Ant’s two lucrative micro-loan businesses Jiebei and Huabei into it, which would make it subject to rules and capital requirements similar to those for banks.

Cinda, one of the country’s four biggest state asset managers, said the withdrawal would not have any material impact on the company.

The private investor consortium buying online recruitment firm 51job is lowering its takeover bid by around 28%, as stricter regulation continues to affect the country’s technology sector, reports Bloomberg. The group backed by DCP Capital Partners has proposed to lower its offer to $57.25 per share in cash, down from an agreed bid of $79.05 per share. The new price represents a 25% premium to 51job’s last close in New York.

Bloomberg News reported earlier that 51job was considering reducing its $5.7 billion offer to reflect changes in the market environment. The buyer group, which also includes Ocean Link Partners and 51job Chief Executive Officer Rick Yan, said it’s restructuring the bid to reflect tighter Chinese regulatory policies that are expected to hit the job market, as well as persistent economic challenges from Covid-19.

The proposed changes will also help ensure the deal complies with new Chinese rules on data security, it said. The combined foreign ownership of DCP Capital and Ocean Link in 51job after the takeover will be capped at 9.99%, and the consortium believes the revised deal won’t trigger any regulatory filing in China, it said in the statement.