Leading domestic dairy company Mengniu (HKEx: 2319) and e-commerce company LightInTheBox (NYSE: LITB) are in the headlines with new foreign tie-ups, including a joint venture for the former and a modest acquisition for the latter. I personally find the Mengniu development more interesting and significant, as it marks the latest move in the company’s drive to become China’s leading dairy products maker and positions it for an eventual global expansion. But investors were much more excited by the LightInTheBox move, which sparked a major rally for the firm’s languishing shares. Read Full Post…
We’re just a week into the New Year, and already new signs of political shenanigans at the nation’s 2 leading wireless telcos, China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) and China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), are hinting at turbulence ahead as Beijing tries to liberalize the state-dominated telecoms services sector. Media are reporting that China Mobile has launched an internal probe into a botched initiative in Hong Kong, which looks to me like an extension of Beijing’s fast-expanding series of anti-corruption probes at major state-owned firms. Meantime, media are reporting separately that a top Unicom executive has left the company to joint one of the nation’s newly licensed virtual network operators (VNO), in a deal that looks aimed at undermining Beijing’s plans to inject new competition into the telecoms services sector. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 7. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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WhiteWave Foods (NYSE: WWAV) To Form JV With Mengniu (HKEx: 2319) (Businesswire)
Unicom (HKEx: 762) Vice President Li Gang Resigns To Join VNO Licensee (Chinese article)
The start of a new year is seeing 2 of China’s top smartphone and telecoms equipment makers lay out their new goals for 2014, with the fast-rising Xiaomi aiming to continue its explosive growth as the more mature Huawei targets more modest gains. Meantime, another leading telecoms player, ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063), is also detailing a major reorganization aimed at rekindling growth as it tries to diversify beyond its core business of building networks for big telcos. All of these plans are consistent with previous signals from each of the 3 companies, and in that regard aren’t very surprising. But they do provide a hint of where priorities will lie in the new year. Read Full Post…
The new year has just begun, and already we’re getting signals that 2014 will be full of new twists and surprises for the solar panel sector as it struggles to emerge from its downturn dating back nearly 3 years. A clash involving Chinese panel makers accused by western rivals of receiving unfair state support looks set to enter a new phase, based on an announcement of new action in the US by SolarWorld (Frankfurt: SWV), the German panel maker that has led the charge against the Chinese companies. Meantime, a separate new joint venture announcement from Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) looks smart, and reflects the new reality that China will become a major driver of solar plant construction in 2014. Read Full Post…
Many companies from traditional sectors have been taking a serious look at the Internet these days, worried that failure to develop a solid web strategy could result in their eventual demise. For sectors like retail and some other traditional product categories, I agree that strategy makes sense as the Internet radically changes the way that these industries operate. But I find the recent Internet obsession by the CEO of Vanke (HKEx: 1036; Shenzhen: 000002), one of China’s leading real estate developers, a bit more difficult to understand, since property doesn’t seem like a sector that can easily migrate to the web. Read Full Post…
Results from a recent poll about Shanghai’s hospitals made for some entertaining reading, but also showed that local residents are quite content with the state of local health care. Despite the frequent complaints some people have about our local hospitals and practices that westerns find strange, I personally also agree that the current system is surprisingly satisfactory and efficient, even if it sometimes lacks the personal touch.
China’s healthcare system has undergone huge changes since the first time I stepped into a hospital in Beijing in the 1980s for a physical exam. The hospitals of that era were truly basic institutions lacking in much equipment, even if their staff of doctors trained in western and traditional Chinese medicine were friendly enough. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 3. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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It’s quiet outside as markets reopen on this first work day after the New Year, so I thought I’d start off 2014 with some predictions for the year ahead in the sectors that I cover. Generally speaking, I do think the first half of the year will see a continuation of strong momentum that began in late 2013 for many sectors. But that momentum will slow as we near the mid-year mark, and 2014 could end with a whimper as the Chinese economy continues to slow and Beijing pushes for higher quality growth. Read Full Post…
The microblog realm has been buzzing loudly this final week of 2013 with stories that are likely to be major themes in the new year, led by a probable IPO by Jingdong, China’s second largest e-commerce firm. Meantime, e-commerce leader Alibaba was showing no signs of slowing down the endless promotion of its recently launched mobile instant messaging (IM) service Laiwang, as it tries to catch up with Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) hugely popular WeChat rival service. Lastly, tweets coming from top e-commerce firms Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) hint that 2014 could see the start of consolidation in the booming but also fiercely competitive parcel delivery sector, perhaps including a few major acquisitions and closures and a long-awaited domestic IPO for China Postal Express, the parcel delivery unit of China’s Post Office. (previous post) Read Full Post…
We’ll start off this first day of the new year with what could well become a major theme for 2014, with word that make-up giant Revlon (NYSE: REV) is officially pulling the plug on its China operations. This timing of this move, which was officially announced just before year end, was most likely related to accounting issues, as Revlon probably wants to take some or all of its resulting $22 million write-down in the fourth quarter. But that said, Revlon’s withdrawal shines a spotlight on the tough market for consumer goods in China, as a slowing economy leads many to cut back their spending on non-essential daily items like make-up. Read Full Post…
