New signs are emerging that many Chinese firms waiting to make offshore IPOs won’t be able to take advantage of a sudden window of positive sentiment that has suddenly appeared, and instead will have to target the late first quarter or second quarter of 2013. This sudden window of opportunity has caught nearly everyone by surprise, and few if any companies have completed the necessary preparations needed to make offerings before mid-December. The period from Christmas to Chinese New Year is typically dormant for new offerings due to all the holidays, meaning most new offerings will have to wait until March to try their luck if investor sentiment remains positive for that long.
Yingli Order: Sunnier Days Ahead? 英利获大单意味未来光明？
Struggling solar panel maker Yingli (NYSE: YGE) is trying the good news-bad news approach to distract investors from its latest downbeat earnings, announcing its biggest-ever new order on the same day it released its dismal third-quarter results. Based on shareholder reaction, the approach has been quite successful, with Yingli’s stock surging more than 13 percent in Wednesday trade after both announcements came out. Investors seem to clearly be focused on the big new order, and are hoping that Yingli may actually be able to manufacture profitably by the time it delivers the solar cells to this major new customer.
Rebound Nears For US China Stocks 中概股即将反弹
After a prolonged winter, spring finally appears to be in sight for overseas-listed Chinese companies amid growing investor confidence that accounting issues that have dogged the sector for much of the last 2 years are finally in the past. The latest signs of spring are coming from telecoms software maker AsiaInfo-Linkage (Nasdaq: ASIA), which may be on the cusp of a buy-out at a nice premium; and word that infamous short seller Muddy Waters may finally be ready to cease its relentless attacks on US-listed China companies.
News Digest: November 29 报摘： 2012年11月29日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 29. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
- CNOOC (HKEx: 883), Nexen (Toronto: NXY) Reapply For US Deal Approval (English article)
- Yingli (NYSE: YGE) Announces Largest Module Supply Contract in Company History (PRNewswire)
- Vancl Reduces Workforce Ahead of IPO (English article)
- Jingdong Mall Obtains 5 Bln Yuan in Credit for Supplier Financing (English article)
- Shanda Cloudary Aims For April 2013 IPO, Hires Merrill As Underwriter (Chinese article)
Shanghai Street View: Going Duty Free 沪经动向：开启免税时代
One of my biggest memories from my first trip to Hong Kong in the 1980s was the Duty Free Shoppers stores and the thrill I got from thinking about the massive savings they could offer on cameras, watches and other electronic gadgets for someone like me on a modest budget. Now Shanghai is taking steps to challenge Hong Kong’s decades-long stranglehold on the market with word that China’s commercial capital will soon open its own first duty-free store sometime next year.
Unicom, China Telecom in iPhone Race 联通与电信争夺大陆iPhone 5首发
More than 2 months after Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) launched its latest iPhone, China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) and China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) are locked in a race to see who can offer the product first in China, in what looks more like a sad comedy of ineptitude than anything else. I usually save most of my criticism in the telecoms space for Unicom, the nation’s second largest mobile carrier that has spent most of the last 2 years more focused on a series of non-stop management reshuffles rather than any attempts to do real business. But this time I also have to save some criticism for China Telecom, China’s smallest mobile carrier, which also has looked equally inept in this latest iPhone launch.
China, US Shuffle Security Card 中美互打安全牌
New noises are coming from both China and the US on the dangers to national security posed by commercial activities in the high-tech space, as fallout continues to linger from the recent Washington decision to ban Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) from selling their equipment in the US. Some might say this new flare up in trade relations is just an extension of other recent similar tensions between Washington and Beijing, whose complaints of unfair trade against each other have accelerated over the last year. But this latest trade war looks a bit more worrisome, since it’s leveled at the high-tech sector whose products are considerably more valuable than the usual lower tech products usually involved in many of these disputes.
News Digest: November 28 报摘： 2012年11月28日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 28. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
- China Telecom (HKEx: 728), Unicom (HKEx: 762) In Race To Offer iPhone 5 First (Chinese article)
- Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo Microblog Launches Professional SNS Service (English article)
- Strategic Materials Advisory Council Opposes Chinese Acquisition of US Defense Supplier (Businesswire)
- Focus Media (Nasdaq: FMCN) Reports Q3 Results (PRNewswire)
- Belarus In Talks With China, India, Others On Potash Giant (English article)
SAP Eyes Dormant Int’l Board 思爱普欲登陆中国国际版
I was amused to read a new report saying that German business software giant SAP (Frankfurt: SAP) may list its shares on China’s planned International Board in Shanghai, since it’s been quite a while since I’ve read any reports like this, which were still quite common as recently as 2010. If I were an optimist, I would say these new reports might indicate a launch is coming in the first half of next year for the long-planned International Board, which would allow offshore companies to raise funds through IPOs in China. But instead, these latest reports, which appear to have originated offshore, are probably just a public relations exercise by SAP, which probably just wants to remind everyone of its commitment to China.
Dongfeng Revs Up Renault JV Talks 东风汽车加紧与雷诺汽车联手
Long-running talks about a new joint venture between domestic automaker Dongfeng Motor (HKEx 489) and France’s Renault (Paris: RENA) appear to be gaining new momentum, driven by urgency for the former to diversify following the recent territorial dispute between China and Japan. Regardless of what’s driving this new development, it does seem to mark an important move for Dongfeng, a top Chinese automaker that is going through a painful period right now due to its big dependence on joint ventures with Honda (Tokyo: 7267) and Nissan (Tokyo: 7201). Those automakers have all seen their sales plunge over the last 3 months as Chinese consumers boycotted the brands at the height of the territorial dispute between China and Japan. In related news, it does look like the peak of the boycott has finally passed, with new reports indicating that sales for the big Japanese brands are starting to pick up again after bottoming out in late October.
China Powers Ming Yang in India 中国明阳风能印度动向
With its new energy sector tottering on the brink of collapse, China no longer seems to care if foreign government accuse it of unfairly supporting its sector with low cost loans and other state subsidies. That at least appears to be the message from a new plan by Ming Yang Wind Power (NYSE: MY), which has just announced a massive new tie-up with policy lender China Development Bank to provide financing for wind power projects in India. (company announcement)
