The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Hershey (NYSE: HSY) To Buy Majority Of Shanghai Golden Monkey Food Co (Businesswire)
AsiaInfo-Linkage (Nasdaq: ASIA) Stockholders Approve of Merger Agreement (PRNewswire)
Alibaba, Wanda Group Team Up On Movie Ticket Payments On Alipay (Chinese article)
Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) Invests in Online Car Rental Firm Yongche (English article)
Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) Starts Offering Cars In China With No Chinese Name (English article)
The headlines are swamped today with news about leading wireless telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL), after Chairman Xi Guohua spoke an event in Guangzhou where he gave details on a wide range of issues as the carrier formally launched its new 4G service. I don’t usually discuss the bottom line until the end of my posts, but with so much news and new data in the headlines it does seem better this time to start here with that assessment. In this case it’s safe to say that China Mobile will embark on a massive spending spree to promote 4G in 2014, meaning we’re likely to see declining profits for much or all of the year. Read Full Post…
There’s upbeat news come from 2 of China’s top domestic automakers, led by word that Dongfeng Motor (HKEx: 489) has finally signed a joint venture deal to make sport utility vehicles (SUVs) with France’s Renault (Paris: RENA) after more than a year of negotiations. Meantime, Geely Auto (HKEx: 175), which is trying hard to turn around struggling Swedish automaker Volvo, has announced its own major new auto financing joint venture with France’s BNP (Paris: BNP). This sudden love fest between Chinese automakers and French companies is probably just coincidence, since the 2 deals look unrelated. But both look like smart moves, as they involve Chinese firms pairing up with relatively strong, experienced foreign partners. That contrasts sharply with the more common Chinese preference in the past for sickly, struggling companies, especially when Chinese firms buy equity stakes in their venture partners. Read Full Post…
A major homecoming for the top executive at e-commerce giant Jingdong is topping the news this week in China’s microblog airwaves, which have been humming with gossip in the run-up to the Christmas holidays. Internet watchers will know I’m talking about Jingdong’s talkative founder Liu Qiangdong, whose voice suddenly disappeared from the microblogging realm for much of this year. Now we’re learning that his silence was due to his quiet departure from China for the US, where he spent a year in a study program.
Elsewhere in the microblogging world, a couple of high level executives at UnionPay, operator of China’s leading electronic payments network, and game operator 4399 are drawing attention to the fact that Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging service may be past its peak and losing its luster. I’ve also noticed this trend, which spotlights how China’s Internet seems much more susceptible to fads than in other parts of the world. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 19. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China’s ongoing anti-graft sweep continues to gain momentum as we approach the end of the year, with major new developments in the headlines from British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) (London: GSK) and domestic energy giant PetroChina (HKEx: 857; Shanghai: 601857; NYSE: PTR). In the former case, GSK is taking the revolutionary step of saying it will no longer pay doctors anywhere in the world to promote its products. In the latter, media are reporting that another top PetroChina official has been detained and resigned as he assists with ongoing investigations of corruption at the state-run giant. Read Full Post…
A new scandal involving the sudden closure of Marie France Bodyline beauty salons in Shanghai didn’t surprise me much, leaving its hundreds of members holding cards with thousands of yuan in worthless credit. This kind of rapid shutdown made headlines because it involved such a high-profile name, but frankly I’m most surprised we haven’t seen a lot more similar closures.
More broadly speaking, the demise of Marie France in Shanghai reflects the ridiculous explosion in spas, massage shops and beauty parlors and other centers of hedonism in China over the last decade. My own daily walk around my neighborhood takes me past at least a dozen such shops, and the density is even higher in more commercial areas of Shanghai. Read Full Post…
Boosted by the big success of the IPO for its money-losing Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) online travel unit, Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is reportedly aiming to test investor appetite for a similar offering next year for its loss-making iQiyi online video unit. Frankly speaking, I don’t think this plan looks very good for a number of reasons, led by the fact that money-losing firms aren’t very attractive in general to investors. Qunar has been the only money-loser of 5 Chinese tech companies to make New York IPOs in the last 2 months, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if investors were attracted to the firm chiefly for its strong ties to Baidu, its controlling stakeholder. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 18. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Cloud Web Services Enters China In New Tie-Up (Chinese article)
I’m quite excited to see some drama finally taking shape in one of the imminent privatization plans for a US-listed Chinese firm, with word that a major stakeholder in telecoms software maker AsiaInfo-Linkage (Nasdaq: ASIA) plans to oppose the company’s buy-out plan. This particular plan is just one of many privatization plans announced by US-listed Chinese companies over the last year, mostly launched by opportunistic buyers who believe the shares were heavily undervalued. But unlike the other plans, this one has drawn particular controversy due to hints of insider dealing that excluded higher bids from several US-based private equity buyers. Read Full Post…
US-listed Chinese stocks neared the end of 2013 with a wild ride last week, as 3 major developments provided a glimpse of the bumpy road that lies ahead in the New Year. That performance points to a strong start for new IPOs at the start of 2014, even though momentum could quickly flag due to the highly volatile and unpredictable nature of these stocks. Read Full Post…
