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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
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 18. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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LightInTheBox Applies For NYSE IPO To Raise Up To $86 Mln (Chinese article)
PBoC May Issue Payment License to Tencent (HKEx: 700) WeChat (English article)
China CITIC Bank (HKEx: 998), MasterCard Sign Strategic Cooperation MOU (Businesswire)
Glencore (London: GLEN) Clinches Chinese Approval With Copper Deal (English article)
China Auto Rental Receives Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) Investment, May Restart IPO (Chinese article)
After nearly half a year of inactivity, signs of a spring for China IPOs in New York are finally appearing with the first public filing by an online retailer named LightInTheBox. At the same time, auto rental specialist China Auto Rental has just formed an important new tie-up with global peer Hertz (NYSE: HTZ), leading media to speculate the company could soon restart its IPO that it aborted more than a year ago due to weak market sentiment. I have to say that both of these potential IPOs caught me a bit by surprise, as neither was the kind of exciting deal I was looking for to rekindle interest in the moribund market for new Chinese listings. Read Full Post…
It seems slightly strange to be writing this week on something as frivolous as flower festivals when Shanghai is at the heart of what could become a major outbreak of H7N9 bird flu with the potential to go global . But that said, many readers may welcome such a diversion to the daily reports on all the latest cases, alongside related reports about the closure of live bird markets and other affected businesses. Read Full Post…
Following its landmark purchase of a major US theater chain last year, real estate giant Wanda has embarked on a spending spree to upgrade its new facilities with a major new deal to buy state-of-the-art sound systems from Dolby (NYSE: DLB). The move is the latest in a steady stream of big announcements over the last year that has suddenly thrust one of China’s top real estate companies onto the global stage, as it looks to become one of the world’s biggest theater chain operators. Read Full Post…
We’re seeing some interesting new moves in the smartphone space from e-commerce leader Alibaba and dominant carrier China Mobile, as each makes big new bets in the fast-evolving area. Alibaba is launching its mobile operating system (OS) on a new series of smartphones with several Chinese partners, following a similar aborted attempt last year. China Mobile, meanwhile, is planning a major overhaul for its popular but rapidly aging Fetion mobile messaging service, in an attempt to compete with newer, more popular third-party apps like Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 17. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Restructures Fetion Mobile Messaging Service (Chinese article)
After years of nonstop talk about making Lenovo (HKEx: 992) the world’s largest PC brand, CEO Yang Yuanqing is readjusting his sights these days onto competing with global smartphone and tablet PC leaders Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Samsung (Seoul: 005930). On the one hand, I have to congratulate Yang for finally focusing on the right targets in his quest to build Lenovo into a true global computing leader. But on the other hand, I have serious doubts about whether Yang can challenge either Apple or Samsung, despite his success in overtaking Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) briefly last year to become the world’s largest PC brand. Read Full Post…
A new media report says global banking giant HSBC (HKEx: 5; London: HSBA) is likely to sell-off more of its Chinese assets, continuing an ongoing divorce by top global lenders tired of slow progress in the complex China market. This latest report doesn’t have any specific insider knowledge of a looming sale, but rather quotes analysts saying such a move is likely. (English article) Still, such disposals seem both likely and logical, following HSBC’s sale last year of its 15.6 percent holdings in Ping An Insurance (HKEx: 2318; Shanghai: 601318) after years of inability to get any strategic returns out of the tie-up. Read Full Post…
A new “scandal” involving a popular brand of bottled water is casting an embarrassing spotlight on China’s tendency to over-regulate many consumer goods and services, creating confusion among the very people such oversight was meant to protect. China should see this case as a wake-up call and take steps to unify and streamline its complex and sometimes contradictory regulatory system. Otherwise it risks a continuing stream of similar “scandals” that will bruise the country’s reputation as a good place to do business, and needlessly worry consumers. Read Full Post…
New statements from 2 of China’s top 4 banks indicate a recent share buyback by their state-owned controlling stakeholder is done, raising the question of just how effective the program was and whether we might see more similar buybacks soon. Based on my own quick analysis, the program does seem have had some limited positive effect, with Shanghai-listed shares of both ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398) and Agricultural Bank of China (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288) outperforming the market over the last 6 months during the program period. Read Full Post…
A new media report is underscoring the importance of games for the future of China’s mobile app developers, who are desperately looking for ways to monetize the big sums of money they spend developing such applications. Social networking sites Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo, Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Renren (NYSE: RENN) are all good examples of companies that have quickly built up communities of tens and even hundreds of millions of users by developing popular desktop and mobile apps. But earning money from those huge communities has proven much more difficult, as all of these companies are quickly discovering. In that environment, games have emerged as one of the few things that users of these popular apps are actually willing to pay for. Read Full Post…
