Just when China was improving its reputation as a global arbiter of fair trade, a recent string of delays is throwing an embarrassing spotlight on just how opaque and bureaucratic the country’s deal approval process remains for global mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Beijing needs to move quickly to reverse this worrisome trend that has seen China hold up a growing number of global deals. Otherwise, China risks gaining a reputation as an obstructionist to the natural flow of global deal making.
News Digest: February 2-4 报摘：2013年2月2-4日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 2-4. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- Daimler (Frankfurt: DAIGn) Buys Stake In Chinese Automaker BAIC Motor (English article)
- Geely (HKEx: 175) Buys Manganese Bronze For 11 Mln British Pounds (English article)
- Unilever (London: ULVR) Completes Global Skippy Sale Outside of China (Businesswire)
- Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Finds New Ways To Freeze Out Qihoo (NYSE: QIHU) Browser (Chinese article)
- China Approves HSBC (HKEx: 5) Sale Of Remaining $7.4 Bln Ping An Stake (English article)
Huawei In New Iran, EU Setbacks 华为再陷负面新闻中
News for certain companies seems to come in waves, which has certainly been the case for embattled telecoms equipment giant Huawei these past couple of weeks. After a period of relative quiet, Huawei made upbeat headlines last week by reporting a 33 percent rise in annual profit, reversing a decline the previous year due to sluggish global telecoms spending. It enjoyed more positive headlines earlier this week when data tracking firm IDC reported that the company’s smartphone business zoomed in the fourth quarter of last year, making Huawei the world’s third largest manufacturer after industry leaders Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). (previous post)
Ctrip Stabilizes, Growth Ahead 携程业绩企稳 利润有望恢复增长
When is a 24 percent drop in net profit a good thing? The answer to that question should usually be “never”, but in the case of online travel agent Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP), the company’s latest drop in quarterly profit appears to be encouraging investors that a recent round of price wars in the sector is starting to ease. That would be good news not only for Ctrip, but also for rivals like eLong (Nasdaq: LONG) and up-and-comers like Baidu-invested (Nasdaq: BIDU) Qunar, which have been engaged in a stiff battle for market share for much of the last year.
LDK, Canadian Solar Get New Loans 江西赛维、阿特斯太阳能获得新贷款
A couple of items from the struggling solar panel sector are showing how the industry is limping forward, receiving minor rescue loans to continue funding operations while manufacturers await a bigger rescue package from Beijing. I can only guess that the bigger package, which has been talked about for much of the last half year, will finally be rolled out by the middle of this year. That will finally allow the industry to try and put itself on more sustainable long-term footing instead of continuing to limp forward in this current state of malaise.
News Digest: February 1 报摘：2013年2月1日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 1. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- Awarding Of 4G Licenses In 2013 A Foregone Conclusions – Source (Chinese article)
- Huawei CFO Linked To Firm That Offered HP (NYSE: HP) Gear To Iran (English article)
- China Telecom’s (HKEx: 728) Video Subsidiary Aims for Domestic Listing (English article)
- LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) Provides Update on China Development Bank Financing (PRNewswire)
- Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) Reports Unaudited Q4 And Full Year Financial Results (PRNewswire)
Monster’s ChinaHR in HR Standoff 中华英才网陷入裁员风波
Chinese employees are quickly discovering that working at a major foreign firm doesn’t necessarily guarantee lifetime employment, even when that firm is a top global name like online employment specialist Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW). Less than 3 months after announcing plans to exit the China market through sale of its local subsidiary, ChinaHR, Monster is quickly discovering that many of its Chinese employees hardly expected that they could ever be laid off and are refusing to accept the company’s plans to offer them severance packages. (English article)
Lenovo Eyes Samsung, Apple 联想加强智能手机业务扩张
Forget about Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), the US computer giant that overtook China’s Lenovo (HKEx: 992) to retake the spot as the world’s biggest PC maker late last year. In discussing its latest quarterly results released late on Wednesday, Lenovo’s talkative chief executive Yang Yuanqing had scant time to discuss his company’s recent loss of the global PC crown to HP, a previous obsession for him for much of the previous 2 years. (results announcement) Instead, Yang appears to have turned his sights to some equally big targets in the form of Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world’s top 2 makers of smartphones, as Lenovo makes its own aggressive push into the space.
News Digest: January 31 报摘：2013年1月31日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 31. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Announces Fiscal 3rd Quarter Results (HKEx announcement)
- ChinaHR Begins Layoffs, Some Employees Protest (English article)
- Ruth’s Chris Steak House (Nasdaq: RUTH) Expands Global Presence to China (Businesswire)
- CNOOC (HKEx: 883) Announces Business Strategy For 2013 (HKEx announcement)
- EU Requests Huawei, ZTE (HKEx: 763) To Raise Exported Product Prices 29 Pct (English article)
‘Tis The Season To Reorganize 中国互联网企业扎堆重组
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but a lot of Chinese Internet firms suddenly seem to be engaged in a series of major reorganizations. I came to this conclusion after reading this morning that Suning.com (Shenzhen: 002024), one of China’s top e-commerce firms, has just undergone a major structural reorganization as part of what the company says is a regular exercise. (Chinese article) News of this latest reorganization comes the same week that headlines have been buzzing with news of another major reorganization at Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s leading Internet company. (Chinese article)
US Elections Behind, A123 Sale Moves Ahead 美国大选之后，A123出售新进展
After a stormy 2012 that saw growing trade friction between China and the US, I’m happy to see that 2013 is getting off to a better start with Washington’s approval of a potentially sensitive sale of a bankruptcy US technology firm to a Chinese buyer. Many readers will know that I’m talking about the case of A123 Systems, a former high-flying US battery maker that fell on hard times as new energy industries worldwide experienced a broader downturn in demand for their products.
