As China gets back to work after the weeklong National Day holiday, Chinese tech firms are also embarking on their own year-end drive to make IPOs in both New York and Hong Kong, hoping to end a sluggish 2 year period for such new listings. The signs certainly look positive for upcoming offerings, at least based on the strong trading debut for web game developer Forgame (HKEx: 484) last week. That could be good news for online classified ad site 58.com, whose prospectus for a New York IPO could soon be publicly released as it aims to become only the second major New York IPO by a Chinese firm this year. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on October 7. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Qingdao Haier (Shanghai: 600690), KKR Form Strategic Partnership (Businesswire)
Tencent (HKEx: 700) Says Is Part Of Consortium Seeking Banking License (HKEx announcement)
Chinese Game Developer Forgame (HKEx: 484) Surges In HK Trading Debut (English article)
Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) Sells 2 Solar Power Plants BlackRock-Managed Fund (PRNewswire)
Socialgist In Deal to Provide Social Data from Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo (PRNewswire)
After seeing its stock price quadruple over the last year on huge expectations for its online search service, Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) must be feeling some pressure to start delivering returns to investors who have bet on the company’s strong growth potential. That’s the most positive explanation I can find for a sudden slew of complaints against Qihoo from other Internet executives who accuse the company of tinkering with their software. Those accusations have produced an entertaining war of words on the Twitter-like Weibo service between Qihoo Chairman Zhou Hongyi and top executives from smartphone maker Xiaomi, software maker Kingsoft (HKEx: 3888) and web portal operator Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU). (previous post) Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 27 to October 1. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Guangdong Unit Announces 4G Package (Chinese article)
Xiaomi MIUI Store to Remove Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) Apps (English article)
58.com to Submit IPO Prospectus to SEC By End September – Source (English article)
China To Offer Tax Breaks To Solar Power Manufacturers (English article)
Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Aims At Apple, Samsung With New VIBE Brand Smartphones (Chinese article)
We will be taking a break for most of this week in observance of the Chinese October 1 National Day holiday, but will publish occasional articles during the period. Publication frequency will return to normal levels starting on October 7.
Agricultural Bank of China (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 600188), the last of China’s “big 4” banks to go public, is now becoming the last of the quartet to eye a global expansion, with word that it’s weighing a bid for Hong Kong’s Wing Hang Bank (HKEx: 0302). I’m generally not a huge fan of AgBank, mostly because its history as a lender to farmers and other agricultural enterprises makes it the least market-oriented of China’s biggest 4 national lenders. But that said, this baby step onto the global stage looks like a relatively well conceived plan for perhaps some bigger steps in the next few years. Read Full Post…
I want to use one of my final posts for September to take a look at the IPO outlook for Q4, specifically what we might expect to see for new Chinese offerings in New York in the final 3 months of 2013. When the history books are written, this year will probably go down as one of the weakest in recent memory for New York IPOs by major Chinese firms. But that said, I do still expect to see a small flurry of activity in the fourth quarter, based on recent reports of new listing plans and signs that a 2-year-old purge of dubious Chinese firms from US stock markets may be finally wrapping up. Read Full Post…
I seem to be using the phrase “flavor of the day” quite a bit these days, as quite a few emerging products and sectors like smart TVs and social networking services (SNS) are suddenly drawing interest from a wide range of companies in established industries. The latest sector to get my “flavor of the day” moniker is banking and financial services, with word that Gree (Shenzhen: 000651), one of China’s top appliance makers, is looking to enter the space. I have no particularly strong feelings about Gree, though I have to say that this new move looks ill-conceived and is a telltale sign that the broader rush into banking services is quickly becoming overheated. Read Full Post…
Any semblance of harmony between Sohu’s (Nasdaq: SOHU) Sogou online search engine and spurned suitor Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) has quickly disappeared with a new series of lawsuits between the 2 sides for unfair competition and defamation. I’m not too surprised by this latest development, since Sohu and Qihoo are headed by 2 of China’s most opinionated and difficult Internet entrepreneurs, Charles Zhang and Zhou Hongyi. But I am somewhat surprised by how quickly relations have soured between these 2 companies, following Zhang’s decision last week to sell a strategic stake in Sogou to leading Internet firm Tencent (HKEx: 700). That decision, which came after months of talks, was a sharp rebuke to Qihoo, which had also been aggressively courting Zhang and Sogou. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China’s Top Appliance Maker Gree (Shenzhen: 000651) Eyes Banking Business (English article)
LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) Enters Forbearance Arrangement with Noteholders (PRNewswire)
Alibaba’s TMall Issues Requirements For International Merchants (English article)
Alibaba packs bags for NY after HK rejects IPO request
Alibaba’s insistence on keeping control of the company in the hands of management has taken an interesting twist, with the e-commerce leader now reportedly eying New York as the preferred destination for its highly anticipated multibillion-dollar IPO. Company watchers will know that Alibaba was reportedly leaning towards Hong Kong for its listing, but ran into a roadblock when Hong Kong securities regulators refused to grant it an exemption that would have allowed its top managers to retain control of the company. This unexpected twist raises the 2 interesting issues: The most immediate is where exactly this mega IPO will take place; and more broadly speaking, it also speaks to the issue of who should control a company once it goes public — its managers or its investors. Read Full Post…
