The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 6-9. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba Sets IPO Price Range Of $60-$66, To Raise Up To $24.3 Bln (Chinese article)
SAIC: E-Commerce Firms Face Fines Up To 500,000 Yuan For Fake Transaction Reporting (Chinese article)
China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Completes Purchase Of 18 Pct Of Thailand’s True Corp (HKEx announcement)
China AutoRental To List In HK On September 19, Raise Up To $468 Mln (Chinese article)
LightInTheBox (NYSE: LITB) Settles Class Action Lawsuit (PRNewswire)
Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) highly anticipated iPhone 6 could face an uphill climb in China when it gets released next week, at least based on the first figures I’ve seen for how much the model will cost. According to the latest reports, China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), the nation’s second largest carrier and Apple’s oldest partner in China, will sell the new iPhone 6 for a starting price of 5,288 yuan, or about $860. That would be significantly higher than the price tag of $750 that many believe will be the iPhone 6’s starting price when it goes on sale in the US later this month. Read Full Post…
The short selling world has been buzzing this week after a secretive research firm launched an attack on recently-listed Tianhe Chemical (HKEx: 1619), sparking a sell-off in the company’s shares. The shady short-seller, appropriately named Anonymous Analytics, has now issued a statement defending its actions, saying it made its attack for the public good. Perhaps that’s true, though I have my doubts. But far more interesting is the prospect that a group of sophisticated short sellers that have feasted for the last 3 years by attacking US-listed Chinese firms could be preparing to move their show to Hong Kong and even to China itself. Read Full Post…
Volume grows in foreign complaints over antitrust probes
The volume continues to get louder in the growing chorus of multinationals complaining they are being unfairly targeted in a recent wave of antitrust probes by Beijing, prompting China to reply that domestic companies are also being targeted. The latest headlines have the American Chamber of Commerce in China finally breaking its silence on the matter, joining its European counterpart in voicing its concerns that western firms are being singled out for probes over anti-competitive behavior. Meantime, China has held a couple of high-profile media events to defend its approach, and now is turning up its campaign with new reports of domestic firms that are also being punished for anti-competitive behavior. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 4. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China To Limit Foreign Content To No More Than 30 Pct For Online Video Sites (Chinese article)
Boeing (NYSE: BA) Raises China Plane Forecast 8 Pct As Overseas Travel Grows (English article)
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) In Content Deal With 9 Domestic Art Organizations (English article)
Gome (HKEx: 493) Opens E-Commerce Platform, No Commissions For 1st Year (Chinese article)
Big privatization deals are never easy, as we’re seeing with signs that a buyout plan launched by the controlling shareholder of online game firm Shanda Games (Nasdaq: GAME) is rapidly unraveling. Shanda Games’ parent, Shanda Interactive, launched the plan back in January, as part of a broader wave of similar privatizations for undervalued US-listed Chinese companies. Shanda Interactive is saying the buyout is still alive, though other shareholders are clearly growing skeptical, based on Shanda Games latest stock price. Read Full Post…
People like myself who were holding out big hopes for a new crop of private firms challenging the 3 big state telcos will be disappointed to learn that the group of virtual network operators (VNOs) are off to a glacially slow start, boding poorly for the program. It’s obviously way too early to call the program a failure, since it’s only 3 months since the first private VNOs were launched. To consumers these VNOs look the same and offer similar services to the 3 existing state-run telcos. But the VNOs don’t actually own any telecoms networks, and instead must lease network capacity from the traditional carriers. Read Full Post…
It’s rare that one issue dominates the blogosphere among the many tech executives who like to tweet about their companies on their microblog accounts. But the past week saw one such debate occur around a spat between 2 old friends in the smartphone space. In one corner was Luo Yonghao, a well-known English teacher who has recently moved into the highly competitive smartphone space. In the other was Wang Ziru, a self-styled gadget critic who has become quite influential. As many might guess, the debate centered on a recent critical review by Wang for Luo’s newly launched smartphone model under his Smartisan brand.
While the Luo-Wang spat kept the blogosphere well supplied with musings from a wide range of tech executives, a few other tidbits also provided some intriguing hints of things to come at other leading tech names. A couple of posts from Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) CEO Zhou Hongyi suggested that a major restructuring could be on the way; and separate musings from an executive at e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) also hinted at potential similar moves. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 4. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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US Group Raises Due Process Concern Over China Antitrust Probes (English article)
China’s broader domestic travel market may be quickly getting saturated, but that hasn’t stopped leading online travel agent Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and global hotel giant Starwood (NYSE: HOT) from seeking out new investment opportunities in more niche-focused areas. News involving the former will see Ctrip purchase a cruise liner from global giant Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) to capitalize on the rising popularity for ocean cruises among Chinese vacationers. The latter news bit will see Starwood, owner of the Westin and Sheraton hotel brands, open an ambitious 4 new resorts on the tourist-friendly Hainan island over the next 5 years. Read Full Post…
Investors were applauding a new announcement by Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL), after it announced a deal that would see it help to finance and build a massive solar power farm in southwest Yunnan province. The deal should indeed help Trina generate big sales for the near-term, as it involves construction of a farm with huge capacity of 300 megawatts of power. But I’m just a bit wary of this kind of development, which will also see Trina pay most of the bills to build the facility. Read Full Post…
