Spreadtrum Joins De-Listing Queue With Buyout Offer

Spreadtrum gets buyout offer

Smartphone chip maker Spreadtrum (Nasdaq: SPRD) has become the latest US-listed Chinese firm to receive a buyout offer, continuing a trend that is making such names an endangered species on New York’s 2 stock exchanges. The process is the result of natural market forces and thus should be allowed to continue without interference, even though it could also cut off an important funding source for some of China’s most dynamic companies. Read Full Post…

Huijin’s Bank Buyback: Coming To HK?

Huijin bank buybacks continue

A liquidity crunch rocking China’s banks has also wreaked havoc on their stocks, prompting their biggest shareholder Central Huijin to step in to try and ease the share sell-off. Huijin so far has limited its buying activity to the Shanghai stock exchange, in what looks like a modestly successful campaign to support shares of big name banks like ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398), China Construction Bank (HKEx: 939; Shanghai: 601939) and Bank of China (HKEx: 3988; Shanghai: 601988). Given the success of this modest program, there’s the interesting possibility that Huijin could expand the program to Hong Kong, where H-shares of the same banks have fallen much more steeply. Read Full Post…

News Digest: June 22-24, 2013

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 20-22. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • Spreadtrum (Nasdaq: SPRD) Announces Receipt of Acquisition Proposal (PRNewswire)
  • More US Senators Concerned By Shuanghui-Smithfield (NYSE: SFD) Deal (English article)
  • Regulator Says Alibaba’s Yu E Bao Product Violates Securities Rules (Chinese article)
  • China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Halts New User Registration For Skype-Like Jego (Chinese article)
  • Zynga China Reportedly Laid off 18 Pct Employees, GM to Resign (English article)

Xiaomi Eyes Tablet PCs

Xiaomi planning tablet PC?

After writing earlier this week that reports of a new TV product from homegrown smartphone maker Xiaomi appeared to be a genuine news leak, I may have to revise my opinion following yet another leak saying the company is preparing to launch a tablet PC. Before I go any further with my discussion on this latest news leak, I should say that the marketing savvy Xiaomi is becoming increasingly boring and predictable in my view, as it appears to simply be copying the entire product line of its role model, US tech giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Read Full Post…

SEC Charges MediaExpress With Fraud, Auditors Next?

SEC charges China MediaExpress with fraud

A series of accounting scandals that began more than 2 years ago has taken a toll on US-listed Chinese stocks ever since then, causing many smaller, unknown firms to de-list and even close. The biggest name to fail was financial services firm Longtop Financial, which once had a market cap in the billions of dollars but now no longer exists. But most of the victims so far have been smaller, obscure firms that no one had ever heard of before. But that could soon change. Read Full Post…

China Latecomers: GM’s Luxury Drive, Microsoft’s Search

Cadillac, Microsoft come late to China luxury cars, online search

China’s luxury car and online search markets are both well established and quite competitive, which makes it difficult for new entrants to gain traction, even when they’re global giants like GM (NYSE: GM) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT). In this case GM wants to challenge established giants like Audi (Frankfurt: VOWG) and BMW (Frankfurt: BMWG) with a major new push into the China luxury car market with its Cadillac brand. Similarly, Microsoft is launching its own new campaign for its Bing search engine that has yet to find much of a following despite several years in the market. Read Full Post…

News Digest: June 21, 2013

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • SEC Charges China MediaExpress, CEO With Fraud (English article)
  • Alibaba’s 1688.com Launches Group Buy Channel (English article)
  • Xiaomi To Sell Tablet PC – Source (English article)
  • Huijin Says To Keep Buying A Shares Of Top 6 Financial Firms For 6 Months (Chinese article)
  • Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU), Qualcomm In Video Mobile Platform Collaboration (PRNewswire)

Wanda Steps Up Global Buying Binge

Wanda samples luxury yachts

Commercial real estate giant Wanda Group is continuing its recent global push, with announcements of a new major purchase of a British yacht maker and plans to build new high-end hotels in New York and London. While some of the plans look interesting, I do think that perhaps this company has just a bit too much money and even more ambition, and that it may be moving too quickly into unfamiliar areas both in terms of products and geography. It’s obviously way too early to predict success or failure for any of these new ventures, but I would caution the company to perhaps slow its rapid overseas expansion or risk running into some major problems in the future. Read Full Post…

Mengniu Drives Needed Dairy Consolidation

Mengniu swallows Yashili

Mengniu’s (HKEx: 2319) new announcement of its third major tie-up in the last month marks the latest step in an important and necessary consolidation for a battered Chinese dairy sector that has been in turmoil for the last 5 years. This kind of retrenchment, which includes a healthy dose of participation by foreign firms, is exactly the kind of medicine that China needs to restore consumer confidence to its fragmented and often unruly food sectors. Read Full Post…

HK Nets Another High-Tech IPO

Skytech picks Hong Kong for IPO

Hong Kong’s stock exchange looks set to snare another Chinese high-tech IPO, with media reports that a unit of Sinosoft Technology is planning a relatively large offering in the market. The reports, if true, would mark yet the latest sign of a shifting tide that could see more Chinese high-tech starts-ups list in Hong Kong as they eschew their previous favorite destinations on stock exchanges in New York. Read Full Post…

News Digest: June 20, 2013

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • China’s Wanda To Spend $1.6 Bln On UK Yacht Maker, Hotel (English article)
  • GM (NYSE: GM) Aims For 10 Pct Of China’s Luxury Car Market By 2020 (English article)
  • Shuanghui Getting $7.9 Bln Financing for Smithfield (NYSE: SFD) Bid (English article)
  • Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Introduces “Bing It On” Campaign to China (English article)
  • Asustek (Taipei: 2357) Stops Supplying PCs To Jingdong Over Low Pricing (Chinese article)