If you can’t build it yourself, then go out and buy it. That looks like the message coming from leading search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which has just raised a tidy $1.5 billion in its first-ever bond offering that could be used in part for acquisitions as the company looks to diversify. Baidu surprised many, myself included, with this massive new bond offering, which comes as growth for its core search business shows signs of slowing sharply.
News Digest: November 22 报摘： 2012年11月22日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 22. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- YY (Nasdaq: YY) Shares Rise 8 Pct on Trading Debut to Close at $11.30 (Chinese article)
- Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Announces Pricing of US$1.5 Bln Notes Offering (PRNewswire)
- Unicom (HKEx: 762) to Buy Fixed-Line Unit From Parent for 12.2 Bln Yuan (HKEx announcement)
- Group Buying Site 24Quan Sued by More Than 20 Suppliers, Customers (Chinese article)
- Toyota (Tokyo: 7203) Venture Says China Retail Sales Rebounding After Plunge (English article)
Shanghai Street View: Gaguing Air Quality 沪经动向：检测空气质量
When is a cold, wet autumn day something to smile about? The answer: When you’re the Shanghai government, and you’re rolling out a new state-of-the-art air quality tracking system for the city’s millions of pollution-wary residents. After flawless, clear weather for much of October, a near non-stop series of hazy days settled on Shanghai in November, sending pollution levels to unhealthy levels just as the city was preparing to launch its highly anticipated new air quality monitoring system. The smoggy weather was creating serious headaches not only for city residents but also for government officials, who were hoping for a positive reading on the system’s launch day last week.
China Mobile 3G Stable, Weighs Fetion Move 中国电信三巨头3G市场份额企稳
The rapidly changing mobile landscape is creating some interesting challenges for China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL), which is finally seeing its 3G market share stabilize as it reportedly may be weighing a bid to buy out the partner for its fading Fetion mobile messaging service. The 3G news is clearly the more important in this pair of news bits, and probably reflects a combination of factors that should bode well for China Mobile as Beijing gets set to issue new 4G licenses. Meanwhile, the latter rumors involving Fetion is probably more wishful thinking from Fetion’s current owners, who would like to get some money for their instant messaging platform which is rapidly being overtaken by newer smartphone applications, most notably Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat.
M&A: CNOOC Yields, AgBank Insures 中海油为收购尼克森再让步 农行收购嘉禾人寿股份获批
I’ll start the day with a look at news on 2 M&A deals, one domestic and one international, that show how difficult such transactions still are for Chinese firms. The first involves what looks like a big step forward in oil major CNOOC’s (HKEx: 883; NYSE: CEO) bid for Canadian rival Nexen (Toronto: NXY), which is controversial only because of its political overtones. The second involves Agricultural Bank of China’s (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288) receipt of regulatory approval to buy a controlling stake of an insurance company named Jiahe, though in this case what’s most interesting is the long amount of time it took to win the approval.
News Digest: November 21 报摘： 2012年11月21日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- China Mobile (HKEx: 941) to Buy Fetion from Ultrapower (Shenzhen: 300002) – Source (English article)
- CNOOC (HKEx: 883) Accepts New Canadian Terms to Win Nexen Deal Nod: Report (English article)
- Agricultural Bank of China (HKEx: 1288) Approved For Jiahe Insurance Investment (HKEx announcement)
- Phoenix New Media (NYSE: FENG) Reports Q3 Unaudited Financial Results (PRNewswire)
- Toys“R”Us Launches Dedicated Web Store in China (Businesswire)
M&A: HSBC Dumps Ping An, Sinopec in Nigeria 汇丰拟售平保股份 中石化收购尼日利亚石油资产
Two new mega-deals on the M&A front are highlighting the fact that foreign companies are shedding assets as they look to improve their performance during the global downturn, providing both risks and opportunities for major Chinese firms. On the risk side of the equation, Ping An Insurance (HKEx: 2318; Shanghai: 601318) is learning the hard way that having a big foreign investor has both its advantages and disadvantages, as global banking giant HSBC (HKEx: 5; London: HSBA) prepares to dump its $9.5 billion stake in the company. On the positive side, oil refiner Sinopec (HKEx: 386; Shanghai: 600028) could be getting a good deal with its new $2.5 billion purchase of Nigerian oil assets from Total (Paris: TOTF) as the French oil giant looks to raise cash to boost its exploration operations.
Advertising Winter Enters Deep Freeze 中国广告行业进入严冬
Leading Chinese media company CCTV has been trumpeting the results of its annual advertising auction for 2013 held over the weekend, which saw spending increase by 11.4 percent despite the recent slowdown that has hit the sector. But from my perspective, these results look very gloomy indeed for reasons I’ll explain shortly, meaning advertising-dependent Internet leaders like search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and video sharing site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOUKU) won’t have much to cheer about in 2013.
News Digest: November 20 报摘： 2012年11月20日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- HSBC (HKEx: 5) In Talks To Sell $9.3 Bln China Ping An (HKEx: 2318) Stake (English article)
- Jingdong Mall Launches Online Music Service (English article)
- MIIT to Release Plan for Trial Private Investment in Telecom Sector (English article)
- Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) Reports Q3 Unaudited Results (PRNewswire)
- Total (Paris: TOTF) Sells $2.5 Bln Nigeria Oil Field Stake to Sinopec (HKEx: 386) (English article)
CCB Joins Capital Raising Queue — Again 建行获准发行400亿元人民币次级债
The near non-stop capital raising by major Chinese banks is showing no sign of slowing, with China Construction Bank (HKEx: 939; Shanghai: 601939) announcing yet another new plan to sell up to 40 billion yuan, or $6.5 billion, in subordinated debt to shore up its balance sheet. Similar to most recent cases, these bonds will be sold into the inter-bank bond market for domestic buyers, meaning that big state-backed institutions are likely to pay most of the bill for this latest recapitalization of a major Chinese bank, most of which are standing on the cusp of a major bad-loan crisis.
Sina Weibo Sniffs E-Commerce With Alibaba 阿里巴巴或牵手新浪微博
New reports over the weekend have Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) popular but profit-challenged Weibo microblogging service sniffing out a strategic tie-up with e-commerce leader Alibaba, in what looks like a very smart tie-up to me if it’s true. Meantime in related news, NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) is shuttering one of its main social networking services (SNS) sites, again reflecting how difficult it is to make money in the popular but cash-poor world of SNS. Let’s take a look first at the big news regarding a potential Sina-Alibaba tie-up, which would mark a major step in the drive by Sina Weibo towards becoming profitable.
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