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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
Up-and-coming smartphone maker Xiaomi’s recent campaign to distance itself from previous role model Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is gaining momentum, with word that it’s preparing to launch a game console. Industry watchers will know that Xiaomi’s charismatic founder Lei Jun has enjoyed seeing his company compared to Apple for most of the last 2 years, and I suspect Lei also considers himself as the equivalent of a Chinese Steve Jobs. But with Jobs no longer in Apple’s life and Apple’s own fortunes plunging sharply in China this year, Lei seems to have suddenly lost interest in his former role model. Read Full Post…
LightInTheBox flirts with IPO price after weak earnings
The latest developments for New York listed e-commerce firm LightInTheBox (NYSE: LITB) and Singapore-listed China Mingzhong Food (Singapore: MINZ) are showing just how fragile a nascent turnaround for battered overseas-listed Chinese stocks could be. Shares of the recently listed LightInTheBox have plunged over the last week following a weak earnings report, bringing them close to their IPO level after an initial surge in their June trading debut. Meantime, Mingzhong shares have plunged even more rapidly, losing half their value after a short seller attack questioning some of the company’s financials. Read Full Post…
A couple of interesting news bits are coming from the new energy vehicle sector, including a potential roadblock into the China market for up-and-coming US player Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) and new results from struggling domestic electric car maker BYD (HKEx: 1211; Shenzhen: 002594) that look encouraging but not too exciting. The main common theme in this latest news is that new energy vehicle makers continue to hold out hopes for the China market, banking on strong government policies to boost the market, even though progress has been slow so far. Read Full Post…
Apple plans flurry of launches to revive China prospects
A new report is saying that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) will formally launch its 4th store in Shanghai around the upcoming Oct 1 National Day holiday, in the latest sign that the tech giant is preparing a major drive to rekindle it flagging China growth. Regular readers will know that the weeklong Oct 1 holiday is one of China’s biggest shopping periods, and that recent reports have said the telecoms regulator may issue long-awaited 4G licenses on or around the holiday. (previous post) Those facts, combined with the recent visit to China by Apple CEO Tim Cook, all seem to point to the long-awaited announcement of an iPhone deal with domestic heavyweight China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) on or around the holiday. Read Full Post…
China’s award of more than half of a massive new telecoms contract to domestic firms despite strong competition from global rivals sends a bad signal for Beijing’s commitment to fair trade, appearing to show that political factors play a significant role in such commercial decisions.
While it’s understandable that China wants to support its homegrown firms in their quest to become global leaders, such favoritism could easily lead to complaints by foreigners who feel they open their markets to Chinese products but don’t receive reciprocal treatment. This current case is especially sensitive, since the European Union already suspects Chinese telecoms equipment makers like Huawei, ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) and Datang of getting unfair state support through policies like government grants and tax credits. Read Full Post…
Froth in company valuations seems to be building once again in China’s high-tech realm, with word that up-and-coming smartphone maker Xiaomi’s latest fund raising values the company at more than $10 billion. The last time I wrote about such a rapidly rising valuation was about 2 years ago when an investor in high flying e-commerce site Jingdong proclaimed that company was also worth more than $10 billion. Jingdong’s value later came down considerably, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Xiaomi’s latest valuation is also just a bit too high on too much investor enthusiasm about this company that is growing fast but also playing in a very competitive market. Read Full Post…
Lilly joins list of drug makers accused of massive bribery
I thought that maybe I had accidentally opened an old news page today when I read the latest headline that US drug maker Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) had been accused of massive bribery in China to sell its medicines. In fact, the headline wasn’t even directly about the allegations that had come from a Chinese newspaper report, but was rather based on a Lilly executive who commented that the company was “deeply concerned” about the latest claims that it spent more than 30 million yuan ($4.8 million) to bribe Chinese doctors to use its medicines. (English article) Read Full Post…
couple of reports on major global M&A by Chinese buyers are showing why such deals could be difficult for a number of reasons, and why it always helps to get a more experienced multinational partner. In the former category, a stalled deal appears to be on the brink of collapse that would have seen a Chinese group buy insurance giant AIG’s (NYSE: AIG) ILFC unit, the world’s largest aircraft leasing company. In the latter category, a new partnership between Chinese grocery store operator China Resources Enterprise (HKEx: 291) and British giant Tesco (London: TSCO) may be preparing a major bid for the Park N Shop grocery store chain being sold by Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa (HKEx: 13). Read Full Post…
Chinese Internet companies have never been afraid to venture outside their core business areas, and that trend continues with word that e-commerce heavyweights Alibaba and Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) are making new forays into education and finance, respectively. Frankly speaking, this recent venturing of some companies so far outside their core competencies doesn’t look all that smart to me, and is the result of a “follow the herd” mentality that’s being driven by a few companies with lots of cash that they want to invest. But that said, these 2 latest cases do look relatively logical and probably have good chances for success. Read Full Post…
The headlines are buzzing about a new joint venture between wireless carrier China Telecom (HKEx: 728) and Internet company NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES), in one of the bigger media frenzies I’ve seen in quite a while for this kind of tie-up. But everyone loves a good contest, and this particular joint venture offers just that with a major new challenge to Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) hugely popular WeChat mobile instant messaging service, known in Chinese as Weixin. Just to make sure everyone understands what this story is about, China Telecom and NetEase have even given their new service the name of YiChat or Yixin in Chinese, which both sound quite similar to the English and Chinese names Tencent’s service. Read Full Post…
An interesting war of wills is shaping up between the Hong Kong stock exchange (HKEx) and e-commerce giant Alibaba, which looks increasingly determined to make its highly anticipated multibillion-dollar IPO in Hong Kong rather than New York. Alibaba’s apparent determination to keep its listing closer to its home China market is understandable, since the Hong Kong stock exchange is already home to China’s biggest listed Internet company, Tencent (HKEx: 700). But that said, Alibaba’s only personal experience with a public listing was also in Hong Kong, and that listing involving its B2B unit Alibaba.com was largely a failure. Shares of Alibaba.com initially soared after their 2007 IPO, but then were largely ignored by investors due to slowing growth, prompting Alibaba to ultimately privatize the company last year. Read Full Post…
