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Journalist China
Business news from China By Doug Young.
Doug Young, journalist, has lived and worked in China for 20 years, much of that as a journalist, writing about publicly listed Chinese companies.
He is based in Shanghai where, in addition to his role as editor of Young’s China Business Blog, he teaches financial journalism at Fudan University, one of China’s top journalism programs.
He contributes regularly to a wide range of publications in both China and the west, including Forbes, CNN, Seeking Alpha and Reuters, as well as Asia-based publications including the South China Morning Post, Global Times, Shanghai Daily and Shanghai Observer
Anyone looking to invest in the China IT outsourcing story will be disappointed to learn that Pactera (Nasdaq: PACT), the sector’s biggest publicly listed player, has just announced a plan to privatize at a nice premium to its last share price. If the privatization succeeds, Pactera would join rival Camelot Information Systems (NYSE: CIS), which is engaged in a similar de-listing, removing what were once 2 of China’s most exciting tech companies from the publicly listed realm for international investors. While the Pactera move reflects a broader privatization trend among US-listed Chinese companies, it also reflects the failure of Chinese IT outsourcing firms to realize the big hopes that many once held for them. Read Full Post…
I have to commend China’s tourism sector for its innovative spirit, even if I don’t always agree with all of its ideas. That spirit has seen public and private entities become especially adept at “tourifying” nearly everything imaginable, from parks to entire historic towns. But Shanghai’s latest campaign to create tourist sites out of some of the city’s most famous factories surprised even me, though it also brought a smile to my face due to its sheer strangeness. Read Full Post…
After making increasing noises about its intent to develop electric vehicles (EVs), domestic automaker Geely (HKEx: 175) is getting serious about the effort by moving one of its top executives into a new role overseeing its EV sales. Meantime, rival EV maker BYD (HKEx: 1211; Shenzhen: 002594) has gotten its own new boost in the space with the launch of a new pilot program for its electric taxis in Hong Kong. Both developments are certainly positive for the sector, and indicate the Chinese automakers haven’t given up on their dreams of bringing EVs to both China and the world. Read Full Post…
There’s lots to say about word that Internet portal operator Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) is selling its Sogou search unit to industry leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), starting with the strong possibility that this latest in a sudden string of rumors about Sogou may be true. Sogou’s chief executive has already said publicly the unit was for sale, naming Baidu as one of the leading bidders. The only slight contradiction in the mix comes from comments by Charles Zhang in an interview late last week, which I’ll return to shortly. Read Full Post…
China’s increasingly contentious trade relations with Europe suffered another setback late last week, when the EU threatened to fine Chinese airlines that were refusing to comply with a new controversial program to reduce greenhouse gases. China responded with its own threat by saying it won’t accept the EU’s planned carbon tax, raising the prospect of a dangerous new trade war. Read Full Post…
New moves from Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) and global retailer WalMart (NYSE: WMT) are turning up the competition in China’s e-commerce wars, which are quickly becoming a contest to see who can outspend whom. Both of these latest initiatives look quite pricey, especially Tencent’s move that will see it roll out an ultra-fast product delivery program. WalMart, meantime, is pouring big money into a campaign to build a new in-house clothing brand for its recently acquired Yihaodian online store. Read Full Post…
I’ve managed to go all of this week without writing on the latest looming trade war between China and Europe over telecoms equipment, but it really would be remiss of me not to mention this intensifying dispute at all. I’ll rehash all the details shortly and also discuss the potential consequences; but before I do, I want to start off with a look at the less obvious element of who is driving this latest conflict. Read Full Post…
As today marks the unofficial end of a long earnings season, I thought I would take a look at the latest numbers from Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), 2 former superstars that are trying to make difficult transitions to remain relevant on the Chinese Internet. Frankly speaking, the numbers from both companies don’t look very exciting and seem to reflect continuing difficulties at both companies. But investors seem to be overlooking the troubles and instead are focusing on the few bits of good news in the reports, with shares of both companies posting solid gains after their financials came out. Read Full Post…
I’ve been following China company news for quite a while, so I’m quite accustomed to seeing law firms file the occasional shareholder lawsuit when a company’s stock price falls on unexpected bad news. But a flood of announcements these last few days threatening lawsuits related to the new buyout offer for telecoms software maker AsiaInfo-Linkage (Nasdaq: ASIA) has surprised even me, potentially derailing the deal as suspicion grows of insider activity. Read Full Post…
There’s a flood of earnings out today from US-listed Chinese firms, so I’ve decided to focus on online video leader Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) and fast rising e-commerce firm Vipshop (NYSE: VIPS), whose shares are showing some unusual reaction to their respective results. In both cases, market outlook was clearly a major factor that helped Youku Tudou shares rally despite a weak report, even as Vipshop tumbled on what seemed like solid results. Read Full Post…
Several news bits from the solar sector show more signs of stabilization after a 2-year-old downturn, even as an ongoing trade war looks set to escalate. The big picture in these news bits does seem to reflect some cautious optimism returning to the sector after the prolonged downturn due to massive oversupply. But that turnaround remains very tentative, and the sector could easily return to turmoil if the current trade war continues to escalate. Read Full Post…
