Bottom line: Bank of China’s Hong Kong arm is likely to find limited interest in a sale of its Nanyang Commercial Bank unit, as a slowing Chinese economy cools offshore interest in buying Hong Kong banks.
Bank of China looks to sell Nanyang Bank
A new report about a potential major bank sale in Hong Kong made me realize that a widely expected rush to buy locally based lenders in the former British colony never materialized. This latest report that the Hong Kong unit of Bank of China (HKEx: 3988; Shanghai: 601398) is shopping its locally-based Nanyang Commercial Bank might rekindle speculation that a flurry of new sales is coming. But the potential buyers mentioned in the report make such a gold rush look unlikely, indicating local Hong Kong banks may be losing their appeal as acquisition targets for Chinese and other global lenders. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 31 to February 2. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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SAIC, Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Agree To Work Together To Fight Piracy (Chinese article)
Tencent (HKEx: 700) Inks Exclusive Online Partnership For NBA Games In China (English article)
55Tuan Makes New IPO Filing, Raising Fund Raising Target To $65 Mln (Chinese article)
Retail Investment Product Site Juzi Licai Wins $100 Mln Series B Funding (English article)
Wang Jianlin Recaptures Title Of China’s Richest Person (English article)
Bottom line: Foreign technology suppliers will complain about new requirements for them to reveal source codes to Beijing for selling to Chinese banks, but will ultimately comply over fears of being shut out of the market.
Beijing to force new security rules on foreign tech
China’s sudden obsession with national security risks posed by foreign technology has taken yet another step forward, with word that Beijing is preparing to place yet more restrictions on foreign firms that supply networking products and services to Chinese banks. As a longtime industry watcher, I need to quickly add my own view that this particular move isn’t really discriminatory against firms like IBM (NYSE: IBM), Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), which are likely to feel the biggest effects. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Alibaba’s sharp slowdown in quarterly revenue growth is unlikely to be a fluke, and will put downward pressure on the company’s stock as its post-IPO honeymoon comes to an abrupt end.
Alibaba revenue growth slows sharply
When the history books are written, this week will almost surely go down as the one that e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) would like to completely erase from the record. The company has spent most of the week struggling with a nightmare in the publicity and government relations department due to a piracy scandal, and now it’s just released new quarterly results that showed sharply slowing growth at the end of last year. The perfect storm of bad news wiped nearly 9 percent off Alibaba’s stock in the latest trading session, and for the week it’s down about 13 percent. Read Full Post…
A few food-related items, 2 in the news and one in my personal life, made me realize once more just how far China’s eating scene has advanced in the last 2 decades, especially in an increasingly international city like Shanghai. The 2 news items both involved coffee, which I wrote about a few weeks ago as I noted the recent explosion in new chains and coffee houses.
The latest twist has fast-food giant KFC joining the trend, with word that it’s rolling out a premium coffee product in a bid to boost its downscale image. If that wasn’t enough, Gubuli, a well-known local chain whose name is synonymous with baozi, or meat-filled steamed buns, is also entering the upscale coffee business through a new joint venture with Australian chain Gloria Jean’s. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 30. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) Announces December Quarter 2014 Results (Businesswire)
China To Demand Secret Source Codes From Computer Firms: NYT (English article)
Bottom line: The piracy scandal rocking Alibaba will blow over in a few weeks with minimal longer-term impact, though the company’s stock will enter a downturn over the next 6 months due to overvaluation.
Piracy scandal grows around Alibaba
This week could well go down as a turning point for high-flying e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), whose growing war of words with a top government agency is quickly becoming a major scandal. The increasingly heated exchange has almost completely overshadowed the latest media reports that say Alibaba’s financial arm is preparing to launch a bank later this year. A separate company announcement indicates the bank will use an innovative credit rating system that draws on Alibaba’s huge volume of big data generated from the billions of transactions and other information exchanges that cross over its network. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Strong pricing for a large new bond from Car Inc reflects good potential for companies in China’s secondary car market, which should see strong growth as new car sales slow.
Car Inc raises $500 mln in bond offer
Let’s take a brief break from Internet companies to look at recently listed auto rental specialist Car Inc (HKEx: 699), which has excited the market with a new $500 million bond offering. Despite its earlier setbacks, including an aborted previous IPO, Car Inc has done quite well since its listing last September, as Chinese car-related plays find a strong audience among international investors. Interest seems especially strong toward car companies that target the second-hand market, as new car sales look set to slow sharply due to China’s slowing economy and restrictions being imposed by many cities to control pollution. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Tencent’s strong early showing for a new WeChat-based advertising service and its investment in a take-out dining service reflect building momentum in its drive to build WeChat into a major new profit center.
BMW, Coke launch ad campaigns on WeChat
A couple of media reports are shining a spotlight on Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat, and some of the new steps it is taking to monetize the hugely popular service that is rapidly expanding beyond its roots as a mobile messaging service. At the same time, another report from Tencent itself is providing some insight into who exactly uses WeChat. It should come as no surprise that the report shows WeChat’s biggest fans are young and mostly male users, which are some of the most attractive targets for the online merchants and advertisers that Tencent wants to do more business on the platform. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 29. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Regulator Blasts Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) For Illegal Business On Its Websites (English article)
Qualcomm Doesn’t Pay Fine, Defends Self In China Anti-Trust Probe (Chinese article)
Bottom line: Apple’s surge in fourth-quarter China sales owes to its iPhone 6 release and growing relationship with China Mobile, though it could have trouble retaining its new crown as the nation’s top smartphone brand.
iPhone sales zoom in China
Skeptics who thought Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) might be losing its luster in China might have to rethink that theory, following release of a new report that says the gadget giant grabbed the title of China’s biggest smartphone seller for the first time ever in the fourth quarter. That surprising result came as Apple released new quarterly earnings that showed China sales also surged 70 percent in its latest quarter, more than double the pace of its global revenue growth.
The surprising China surge comes as Apple works closely to address Beijing’s concerns about national security risks and the privacy of Chinese iPhone users, issues that reflect one of the continuing challenges it will face in the market. Read Full Post…
