ChemChina and Sinochem are consolidating their agricultural assets into a new holding company to be called Syngenta Group, ChemChina unit Syngenta said on Sunday, reported Reuters.

Chen Lichtenstein, current president and CEO of Shenzhen-listed crop protection company ADAMA, which will also be incorporated into the new group, will be nominated CFO of the newly formed Syngenta Group.

Reuters reported last month that China National Chemical Corp, or ChemChina, had approached Chinese state-backed investors for up to $10 billion in funding as part of a reorganization of its agrichemicals business ahead of a public float.

The reorganization includes Syngenta, the Swiss pesticide producer that ChemChina agreed in 2016 to buy for $43 billion. The fundraising efforts and eventual stock market listing are designed to cut ChemChina’s debt ahead of a long-awaited mega-merger with state-owned peer Sinochem. Frank Ning, the chairman of both companies, has encouraged individual business units to tap capital markets ahead of any tie-up, which has been in the works since 2016.

Chinese liquor giantKweichow Moutaihas announced it is shutting down its e-commerce unit, which had failed to solve the problem of distributors hoarding stock to drive up prices, reported Caixin.

Moutai’s board voted unanimously to close the unit, the company saidin a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Tuesday. No reason was given for the closure. The company’s stock edged down 0.17% in Friday trading.

In 2017, Moutai told all of its distributors that they’d have to sell at least 30% of the products they received through the company’s own e-commerce platform, ensuring Moutai could track their sales. That was increased to 40% last year. Hoarding had long been a problem for the company, with distributors creating scarcity in the market to increase prices.

JPMorgan Chase has won approval to launch a majority-owned Chinese securities business, beating out Wall Street rivals and expanding its reach in the country against a difficult background of US-China trade tensions, reported the Financial Times.

The US bank is to open a new unit offering services including securities brokerage, investment advisory and underwriting and sponsorship, having received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, it said on Tuesday.

The regulator’s decision makes JPMorgan the first US bank to gain approval for a majority-owned securities joint venture in China, concluding a lengthy process with the group having originally applied for permission to do so in May 2018. The bank did not disclose details of who the minority Chinese partner will be.

China is “a critical market for many of our domestic and global clients”, said Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan. “We will continue to invest in and fully support our business in the country.”

A unit of ByteDance, the owner of video-sharing platform TikTok, has established a joint venture with a Chinese state media group, official registration documents showed, reported Reuters.

ByteDance, which is one of China’s fastest-growing startups, has formed a series of partnerships with state media organizations in order to feed its leading news aggregator platform, Jinri Toutiao. “The joint venture will focus on partnership in the digital rights of short videos,” a ByteDance spokeswoman said in response to Reuters inquiries about the deal.

Under the latest deal, Beijing Liangzi Yuedong Technology Co Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ByteDance, will own 49% of the new company, Pengpai Audiovisual Technology (Jinan) Co Ltd, with Shanghai Dongfang Newspaper Co Ltd holding the remaining 51% majority stake, the documents from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System showed.

ByteDance’s TikTok platform has become popular with teenagers all over the world, but the company’s ties with Chinese authorities have faced scrutiny in recent weeks amid a US national security panel’s inquiry into the safety of the personal data it handles.

Alibaba Group Holding beat estimates to report a 42% revenue increase in the second quarter amid signs of slowing growth in China’s economy, said the South China Morning Post.

New York-listed Alibaba on Thursday posted better-than-expected revenue of RMB 114.9 billion ($16.7 billion) in its fiscal first quarter, up from RMB 80.9 billion a year ago, driven by an increase in annual active customers on its China retail platforms. Net income jumped 145% to RMB 21.3 billion in the same quarter.

“Alibaba had a great quarter, expanding our user base to 674 million annual active consumers, demonstrating our superior user experience,” said Daniel Zhang Yong, chief executive of Alibaba, in a statement. “With strong cash flow from our core commerce business, we will continue to invest in technology and bring digital transformation to millions of businesses globally.”