News bits from the automobile space indicate the long-awaited IPO by Beijing-based car maker BAIC Motor may finally be coming soon, while the struggling Geely (HKEx: 175) is chasing a couple of distracting new initiatives in the electric vehicle and overseas markets. Let’s start with the BAIC news, as that looks the most interesting since it could provide investors with an interesting IPO opportunity later this year.
Journalist China
Baidu-Qihoo Spat Heats Up 奇虎和百度硝烟再起
The unspoken war between online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and challenger Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) is taking on a new wrinkle with word that Baidu may be trying to get its advertisers to stop using Qihoo’s popular web browser. I personally find this war of words quite entertaining, though I do also think that Qihoo could better spend its time focusing on doing business rather than accusing others of trying to thwart it through this kind of underhanded tactic. Qihoo, after all, is the master of the underhanded business tactic, which has resulted in numerous lawsuits and complaints being leveled against the company over the years.
China: An M&A Obstructionist 中国：并购阻挠者
Just when China was improving its reputation as a global arbiter of fair trade, a recent string of delays is throwing an embarrassing spotlight on just how opaque and bureaucratic the country’s deal approval process remains for global mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Beijing needs to move quickly to reverse this worrisome trend that has seen China hold up a growing number of global deals. Otherwise, China risks gaining a reputation as an obstructionist to the natural flow of global deal making.
Huawei In New Iran, EU Setbacks 华为再陷负面新闻中
News for certain companies seems to come in waves, which has certainly been the case for embattled telecoms equipment giant Huawei these past couple of weeks. After a period of relative quiet, Huawei made upbeat headlines last week by reporting a 33 percent rise in annual profit, reversing a decline the previous year due to sluggish global telecoms spending. It enjoyed more positive headlines earlier this week when data tracking firm IDC reported that the company’s smartphone business zoomed in the fourth quarter of last year, making Huawei the world’s third largest manufacturer after industry leaders Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). (previous post)
Ctrip Stabilizes, Growth Ahead 携程业绩企稳 利润有望恢复增长
When is a 24 percent drop in net profit a good thing? The answer to that question should usually be “never”, but in the case of online travel agent Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP), the company’s latest drop in quarterly profit appears to be encouraging investors that a recent round of price wars in the sector is starting to ease. That would be good news not only for Ctrip, but also for rivals like eLong (Nasdaq: LONG) and up-and-comers like Baidu-invested (Nasdaq: BIDU) Qunar, which have been engaged in a stiff battle for market share for much of the last year.
LDK, Canadian Solar Get New Loans 江西赛维、阿特斯太阳能获得新贷款
A couple of items from the struggling solar panel sector are showing how the industry is limping forward, receiving minor rescue loans to continue funding operations while manufacturers await a bigger rescue package from Beijing. I can only guess that the bigger package, which has been talked about for much of the last half year, will finally be rolled out by the middle of this year. That will finally allow the industry to try and put itself on more sustainable long-term footing instead of continuing to limp forward in this current state of malaise.
Monster’s ChinaHR in HR Standoff 中华英才网陷入裁员风波
Chinese employees are quickly discovering that working at a major foreign firm doesn’t necessarily guarantee lifetime employment, even when that firm is a top global name like online employment specialist Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW). Less than 3 months after announcing plans to exit the China market through sale of its local subsidiary, ChinaHR, Monster is quickly discovering that many of its Chinese employees hardly expected that they could ever be laid off and are refusing to accept the company’s plans to offer them severance packages. (English article)
Lenovo Eyes Samsung, Apple 联想加强智能手机业务扩张
Forget about Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), the US computer giant that overtook China’s Lenovo (HKEx: 992) to retake the spot as the world’s biggest PC maker late last year. In discussing its latest quarterly results released late on Wednesday, Lenovo’s talkative chief executive Yang Yuanqing had scant time to discuss his company’s recent loss of the global PC crown to HP, a previous obsession for him for much of the previous 2 years. (results announcement) Instead, Yang appears to have turned his sights to some equally big targets in the form of Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world’s top 2 makers of smartphones, as Lenovo makes its own aggressive push into the space.
‘Tis The Season To Reorganize 中国互联网企业扎堆重组
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but a lot of Chinese Internet firms suddenly seem to be engaged in a series of major reorganizations. I came to this conclusion after reading this morning that Suning.com (Shenzhen: 002024), one of China’s top e-commerce firms, has just undergone a major structural reorganization as part of what the company says is a regular exercise. (Chinese article) News of this latest reorganization comes the same week that headlines have been buzzing with news of another major reorganization at Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s leading Internet company. (Chinese article)
US Elections Behind, A123 Sale Moves Ahead 美国大选之后，A123出售新进展
After a stormy 2012 that saw growing trade friction between China and the US, I’m happy to see that 2013 is getting off to a better start with Washington’s approval of a potentially sensitive sale of a bankruptcy US technology firm to a Chinese buyer. Many readers will know that I’m talking about the case of A123 Systems, a former high-flying US battery maker that fell on hard times as new energy industries worldwide experienced a broader downturn in demand for their products.
Group Buying Shake-Up Hits Qianpin 团购行业洗牌风潮袭击千品网
It may be a new year, but there’s nothing new about the latest development in the group buying space where an ongoing cleanup has claimed one of the biggest victims yet with reports of mass layoffs at a mid-sized player called Qianpin. This latest shake-up is part of an ongoing retrenchment that has now reached its late stages, and I do expect we’ll see 1 or 2 more major fireworks in the next 6 months before this long and painful consolidation wraps up around the middle of the year.
