It seems appropriate that 2 more longtime-listed Chinese companies are bowing out of New York as we head into the final days of 2013, with word that shareholders have approved plans to privatize telecoms software maker AsiaInfo-Linkage (Nasdaq: ASIA) and drugmaker Simcere Pharmaceutical (NYSE: SCR). AsiaInfo was the more lively of these 2 de-listing stories, with a narrow majority of shareholders approving a buy-out offer after several months of protest from others who thought the price was too low. Meantime, Simcere’s looming privatization raises the question of what’s next for this neglected company, whose foreign partners include Bristol-Myers Squbb (NYSE: BMY) and Merck (NYSE: MRK). Read Full Post…
A couple of new tie-ups involving major foreign players in pharmaceuticals and computing provide an interesting glimpse at how multinationals are trying to target their China initiatives to be in sync with Beijing’s latest policy agendas. The strategy of working with a local partner isn’t all that new, but in this case what’s more interesting is the targeted approach these two new tie-ups are taking, the first aimed at taking advantage of China’s ongoing massive overhaul of its healthcare system and the second at Beijing’s push to become a leader in cloud computing. Let’s look at the pharmaceuticals deal first, which is seeing Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) teaming up with local drugmaker Simcere Pharmaceutical (NYSE: SCR) to make and sell a cardiovascular compound in China. (
I’ve written lots about the huge potential that China offers for drug makers as Beijing rolls out a multibillion-dollar reform of the country’s medical system. But there’s also huge potential for medical equipment makers, whose devices will fill the thousands of smaller local clinics being set up as part of a massive national plan to provide basic medical coverage to hundreds of millions of Chinese who lack access to such services. That potential was on display with the announcement by US-based Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), one of the world’s top medical equipment suppliers, that it would buy New York-listed Chinese peer Kanghui Holdings (NYSE: KH) for a nifty $816 million, in what looks like the biggest acquisition of a Chinese medical device firm by a western company.
Global drug makers like Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Bristol-Myers (NYSE: BMY) have been piling into China’s drug market over the last few years in a bid to take advantage of huge new opportunities presented by the nation’s ongoing health care reform, even as growing signs emerge that risks also exist alongside the potential to make money. The latest of those risks was recently on display in the nation’s patent office, where an intellectual property law was modified to make it easier for Chinese companies to make generic versions of drugs that otherwise would still receive patent protection. (
