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Web portal Sohu.com (Nasdaq: SOHU) was in the headlines last week as founder and longtime chief executive Charles Zhang discussed a major restructuring for one of China’s oldest Internet companies to ensure its long-term survival. (Chinese article) His disclosure put Sohu alongside most of China’s other major Internet companies in announcing such plans, as each seeks to chart a new course in a rapidly changing environment. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 15. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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New developments from leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and listing candidate Jumei are providing the latest signals that the heady market for Chinese IPOs in New is rapidly losing steam, potentially derailing many upcoming new offerings. Sina has just announced a massive share buyback to support its crumbling stock, just days before a rapidly weakening IPO for its Weibo microblogging unit that could come as soon as this week. Meantime, online cosmetics seller Jumei has sharply scaled back the size of its original IPO plan, again hinting at rapidly weakening demand for shares of Chinese Internet companies. Read Full Post…
After watching their shares and prospects soar over the past year, solar stocks are suddenly hitting a cloudy patch as investors anxiously wait for most companies to return to the profit column following a 2 year sector downturn. That wait may have just gotten a lot longer, following a warning from Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) that it will fall far short of its previous sales forecasts for the just-ended first quarter.
Trina blames the problem on short-term factors, as it and other Chinese panel makers work to finalize an agreement to avoid the European Union’s previous threat of anti-dumping tariffs. But hidden in the optimism from Trina and its Chinese peers is the fact that the new agreement is likely to have many of the same effects as the original punitive tariffs. That means most of these Chinese companies will suddenly face resurgent new competition from western rivals in Europe once a deal is reached. Read Full Post…
News of major new fund-raising by 2 Chinese financial firms is casting a spotlight on the wide range of private lending organizations that are likely to emerge in the years ahead, fueled by Beijing’s desire to create a more efficient lending environment. In this case we’re seeing activity at opposite ends of the spectrum, led by a massive new rights offer by private equity giant Fosun International (HKEx: 656), and a more modest but still significant second-round venture capital investment for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform Ppdai.com.
Both of these moves spotlight the wide array of choices that investors will soon have for private-sector financiers in China. But this emerging sector will also carry significant risk, since Beijing is still trying to figure out how to adequately regulate this group to ensure its longer-term healthy development. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 12-14. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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In writing my final post of the week, I’ve just come to the realization that all 3 of my daily posts this Friday mention leading Internet firm Tencent (HKEx: 700), which has just announced a massive bond issuing program almost certainly aimed at future M&A. Perhaps it’s not surprising that Tencent’s name is showing up in almost everything related to the Internet in China these days, since the company is quickly becoming the nation’s dominant online company alongside leading e-commerce firm Alibaba and search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Read Full Post…
An interesting report has just emerged on the nature of traffic on Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging service, casting a spotlight on how people use the platform just a week before it gets set to make a major New York IPO. The timing of this latest report looks a bit suspicious, aimed perhaps at further cooling sentiment towards an IPO that was already losing momentum. But from my perspective, this latest finding that a very small number of Weibo users are responsible for most of the site’s original postings isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To the contrary, this kind of revelation could even help Weibo by differentiating it from rival service WeChat, which is growing much faster. Read Full Post…
Just days after reports emerged that China’s top 2 online travel agents were in talks for a potential merger, rivals eLong (Nasdaq: LONG) and venture-backed Tongcheng have announced their own new tie-up that could be prelude to a similar marriage. In an interesting twist, this newest deal looks like it’s being engineered behind the scenes by Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s leading Internet company that is also a major stakeholder in both eLong and Tongcheng. Such a dynamic would be similar to the bigger deal that emerged earlier this week, which could see leading online search firm Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) orchestrate a much larger merger between Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR). Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 11. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Just days after worrisome signs emerged that the frothy market for Chinese IPOs in New York was losing steam, clinic operator iKang Healthcare (Nasdaq: KANG) has become the latest newly listed company to send out a mixed signal about the recent bull market for Chinese shares. iKang has just made its trading debut on the Nasdaq, posting a performance that was quite respectable though far from the big fireworks we were seeing late last year from most newly listed Chinese firms.
The showing marks the latest hint that the wave of bullish sentiment towards Chinese IPOs has crested, though anyone who can manage to list in the next 30 days could still do do respectably. Prospects for new listings after mid-May could be a bit more problematic, meaning we could see some companies accelerate their plans to get to market before then. Most notably, I do expect we’ll see upcoming mega-listings for Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging site and e-commerce giant JD.com make their debuts within the next 2 weeks. Read Full Post…
