The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 13. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- China Adds $1.1 Bln More In Subsidies To Solar Sector – Xinhua (English article)
- Jingdong Mall to Invest 4 Bln Yuan in Cloud Computing Centers (English article)
- Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) to Launch Online-Offline Expo Superstore in Nanjing (English article)
- Ku6 Media (Nasdaq: KUTV) Becomes $1 Stock, CEO Says Won’t De-List (Chinese article)
- Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) Opens First Farmer Support Center in Yunnan (Businesswire)
Shanghai and the surrounding Yangtze river delta are becoming home to some of the world’s tallest and most distinctive new skyscrapers as China races to construct new office towers to house the many companies powering its economic boom. But the region is also quickly gaining notoriety for a new generation of glittering towers that often become the subject of local ridicule for their sometimes strange and daring designs. I personally find many of these new designs interesting and even appealing, adding individuality to emerging urban skylines that might otherwise look homogenous and lacking in individuality. But many locals feel differently.
A couple of months after suffering a major setback in the US, hobbled telecoms equipment giants Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) are trying hard to convince the world that they are still committed to expansion in the west with 2 new investment announcements. But neither announcement looks very exciting in terms of size, and both look like feeble efforts to try to prove that neither company is ready to admit a slowdown in its global expansion. Both cases involve investment in new product development, with ZTE announcing a plan to invest in the US and Huawei focusing on Europe.
Just a day after I ridiculed a new mobile phone alliance between Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and China Unicom (HKEx: 762) (
After praising China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) just last week for finally returning its focus to the present under a new top management team installed earlier this year, I feel compelled to update my previous view by expressing a slight concern at a sudden flurry of new initiatives from the company. In the last 24 hours alone, I’ve read reports of at least 3 new moves by China’s largest mobile carrier all aimed at tapping the growing market for high-speed telecoms services.
China’s rapidly weakening advertising market may be undermining Focus Media’s (Nasdaq: FMCN) ongoing privatization bid, with word that one of the companies underwriting the buyout may have backed out of the deal. The news, if true, underscores the fact that this kind of privatization is never easy, and that China’s wobbly economy may make future similar buyouts even more difficult. But at the end of the day, I do suspect this privatization bid will probably succeed since many offshore investors are still quite bullish on China. What’s more, Focus Media, despite a recent restructuring, is in the enviable position of being one of China’s leading outdoor advertising services firms.
Fresh on the heels of a victory in its bid to buy Canadian energy exploration firm Nexen (Toronto: NXY), China is preparing to test its luck once again with another sensitive attempt to buy one of the largest US aircraft leasing companies from insurance giant AIG (NYSE: AIG). I previously predicted the Canadian government would ultimately approve the purchase of Nexen from state-run Chinese oil major CNOOC (HKEx: 883; NYSE: CEO), which the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally did just before the weekend after months of foot dragging. But a separate group of state-backed buyers that includes China’s biggest bank ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398) should look closely at the fine print in final Nexen verdict, which could presage a bumpy flight path ahead in their surprise $5.5 billion bid for ILFC, the aircraft leasing arm of AIG.
The woes at fast-fading former solar superstar Suntech (NYSE: STP) keep on coming, with the company releasing its latest earnings report that shows its woes are likely to continue until its increasingly inevitable takeover by the state. That takeover, if and when it comes, is likely to be as filled with fireworks as Suntech’s actual decline, with all signs indicating that founder Shi Zhengrong won’t easily yield control of his company to the government-backed funding sources he needs to provide it with desperately needed new capital.
