The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 12. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba Transaction Volume Reaches 35 Bln Yuan On Nov 11 Singles Day (Chinese article)
Temasek, Hopu Buy $213 Mln Stake In Chinese Dairy Maker (English article)
There’s a flurry of news in the fund-raising realm, led by word that online lottery company 500.com has sharply cut the size of its upcoming New York IPO following recent successful trading debuts for 2 other companies. At the same time, struggling online clothing seller Vancl has reportedly raised a new $100 million to keep funding its operations, as it looks for elusive profits. Meantime, Nasdaq-listed chipmaker RDA Microelectronics (Nasdaq: RDA) may be moving in the opposite direction of 500.com, with word that it has received a buyout offer that would see its shares de-listed from the Nasdaq. Read Full Post…
A couple of news bits are showing how a wider range of Chinese investment choices are slowly becoming available to western buyers, including many of riskier quality. Shares of premium Chinese names like top telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) and leading Internet company Tencent (HKEx: 700) have been available to western investors for years through their overseas-listed shares, mostly traded in New York and Hong Kong. But now a new group of decidedly lower-tier Chinese companies are coming onto the market with 2 new developments. One those will see Cinda Asset Management, one of Beijing’s main bad debt aggregators, make an IPO in Hong Kong; the other has seen the first exchange traded fund (ETF) that directly buys and sells China-listed A-shares make its debut in New York. Read Full Post…
The axiom that history repeats itself certainly seems to be true for fast-sinking Taiwanese PC maker Acer (Taipei: 2353), which has just announced the resignation of its chairman J.T. Wang. In the meantime, the region’s other top PC maker Lenovo (HKEx: 992) was probably wishing for a repeat of history, hoping that its successful purchase of IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) PC business in 2005 would be repeated with a recent bid for dying smartphone pioneer BlackBerry (Toronto: BB). But instead, media are reporting that Lenovo never bothered to make a formal bid for BlackBerry, after being told that such a deal would be blocked by Ottawa due to national security concerns. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 9-11. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Cinda Hong Kong IPO To Test Investor Appetite For China’s Bad Debt (English article)
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to Take Over China Skype Operation From Tom (English article)
500.com Sets IPO Price Range At $9-$11 per ADS (Chinese article)
Holder Of Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) Name In China Wants $30 Mln For Trademark (Chinese article)
Vancl Raises Another $100 Mln In Quest To Regain Lost Glory (Chinese article)
Since everyone is buzzing with excitement today over the successful IPO for social networking (SNS) pioneer Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), I thought I would end the week with a look at 2 other up-and-coming US Internet firms and their decidedly low-key approach to China. I’m talking about LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), the professional networking site, and Evernote, a cloud-based note-taking service. Neither of these 2 up-and-comers has made any high-profile announcements about their entries to China, even though both are active in the market. That could be a smart approach, following high-profile missteps by earlier arrivals that may have ultimately hurt their prospects in the large but also challenging market. Read Full Post…
Online search aspirant Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) is back in the headlines, this time by boosting its targets as it gains ground on market leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). At the same time, the company is also watching its flank, launching a new war of words against a new potential rival from the newly formed combination of Sohu’s (Nasdaq: SOHU) Sogou search engine and Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) Soso. From a tactical standpoint, this kind of attack on current and future rivals probably looks like a smart move. But from a more practical standpoint, these kinds of assaults are unlikely to have any real effect on Qihoo’s search business; instead such acts of aggression give off a signal of slight desperation as Qihoo tries to justify the recent run-up in its share price resulting from hype about its year-old So.com search engine. Read Full Post…
Leading global toymaker Mattel (NYSE: MAT) and top retailer Walmart (NYSE: WMT) are quietly tinkering with their China approaches, as each tries to find success in a market that is so big they can’t afford to ignore it. Despite that allure, both global leaders have had difficulty making money in China to date, after relying too much on their global business practices that didn’t appeal to Chinese consumers. Now Walmart is making a second, quieter play at the market through its growing ties with e-commerce company Yihaodian. Mattel is also taking a longer term approach by trying to popularize its globally famous Barbie dolls and other toy brands among Chinese children and their parents. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 8. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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iPhone Re-enters Top 5 In China Smartphone Market Share In Q3 (Chinese article)
Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Announces Fiscal Year Interim Results (HKEx announcement)
More good news is coming for the rebounding solar sector with word that Beijing is accelerating its build-up of solar power plants in a bid to help the industry and also improve China’s dismal air quality. But that news is coming too late for rapidly disappearing sector pioneer Suntech (NYSE: STP), which has just announced it has formally launched a liquidation process that will end its life as an independent company. Suntech’s downbeat news isn’t really unexpected, and comes amid a much broader flurry of positive signs for a solar panel sector that is finally emerging from a downturn that has lasted nearly 3 years. Read Full Post…
Two interesting new reports about China’s box office paint very different pictures about the country’s movie industry. Everyone agrees the sector is growing at a rapid clip, and will probably eclipse the US over the next decade to become the world’s largest box office. But who exactly is fueling that growth is a subject of debate, with one report saying domestic productions are suddenly surging as another says Chinese film companies are boosting their appetite for foreign productions. The underlying factor behind this apparent paradox is a growing confluence between East and West, with foreign studios increasingly working with Chinese partners and customizing their films for Chinese audiences. Read Full Post…
