Bottom line: A new second wave of consolidation is likely to occur in China’s solar panel sector later this year, with money-losing companies like Yingli and ReneSola as the most likely acquisition targets.
New clouds loom over solar sector
Looming signs of new trouble are brewing in the solar panel sector, with shares of Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) taking a bath after the company reported widening losses and slowing revenue growth. The 15 percent sell-off saw Yingli’s shares re-approach an all-time low from just 2 and a half years ago, as the company joined a small but growing club of US-listed solar panel makers whose shares now trade in the $1-2 range.
Yingli’s announcement makes it the last of China’s major solar panel makers to report their fourth-quarter results, painting a picture that hints of more consolidation on the way for a sector that has already undergone a painful restructuring over the last 2 years. Two camps are emerging: One that is profitable, including names like Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) and Trina (NYSE: TSL); and one that is losing money, which includes Yingli and ReneSola (NYSE: SOL), which became the charter member of the $1 club when its shares sank below $2 last November. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Caixin’s new lawsuit against leading portals Sohu, Sina and Hexun could mark the start of a much-needed clean-up that will end the practice of rampant copyright violations among major Chinese news sites.
Caixin sues Sina, Sohu for illegal copying
I’m giving this week’s special award for bravery to cutting-edge financial news publisher Caixin, which is challenging the widespread illegal copying of copyrighted articles that occurs daily on Chinese news sites. Everyone knows that this kind of piracy is rampant in China, but some might be surprised to learn that companies targeted in Caixin’s new lawsuit include some of China’s top news portals, led by Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU). I was also just slightly embarrassed to see that one of the companies being sued is financial news and information site Hexun, which is backed by my former employer Reuters (Toronto: TRI). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Alibaba, Tencent and Ping An’s online insurance joint venture should easily find backers for its first major fund-raising, and could even exceed its $8 billion valuation target due to strong demand.
Zhong An targets $1 bln in new funds
This year’s list of major private funding raising by high-tech firms continues, with word that an online insurance joint venture involving 2 of China’s biggest Internet names is seeking to raise a hefty $1 billion in its first funding round. This particular venture certainly has a strong pedigree, as it’s backed by Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s 2 leading Internet companies with a combined market value of nearly $400 billion. The pair are joined in the venture by Ping An (HKEx: 2318; Shanghai: 601318), China’s second largest insurer and also one of the most aggressive players in its space. Read Full Post…
As the spring semester gets underway at the university where I teach, I’m once again confronted with an issue that seems to get trickier with each passing year. That issue involves my ongoing quest to improve my written Chinese, and the constant challenge posed by a trend that has parents choosing increasingly obscure names for their kids.
My Chinese was far worse when I first came to Beijing in the 1980s, and yet it was quite easy for me to read and pronounce names back then. That’s because many people had very similar names, often with revolutionary themes incorporating characters like hong for red, or bing or jun for soldier. Nowadays I struggle to read many of my students’ names on our first day of class, and many students themselves don’t know the meanings of the obscure characters their parents have chosen for them. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 25. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba, Tencent, Ping AnInsurance JV Seeks $1 Bln Series A Funding (English article)
Bottom line: New smart car initiatives from Tencent, LeTV and Baidu are all likely to struggle, with Baidu most likely to be first to drop out of this race to copy Internet giant Google.
LeTV car to debut at Shanghai Auto Show
China is quickly living up to its copycat reputation in the smart car space, with the latest word that Tencent (HKEx: 700) will enter the business in a tie-up with Taiwanese contract manufacturing giant Foxconn (HKEx: 2038). That pair are following Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) into the area, but they certainly aren’t the first Chinese to mimic the world’s largest Internet company.
That distinction would probably go to Chinese Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which last year announced its own smart car initiative that was also back in the headlines this week as CEO Robin Li discussed the plan. Yet another similar initiative is also in the headlines today, as online video sensation LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) discussed its own plans to show off its first smart car at the Shanghai auto show next month. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Bacardi’s new Tang tea-based liquor could do well despite its premium pricing and Beijing’s frugality campaign if it takes aim at affluent yuppies who like to try new things and are put off by the stodgy image of baijiu.
Bacardi rolls out tea liquor
It’s hard to get excited about a liquor story as the world returns to work at the start of a new week; but I’ll admit I’m just a bit intrigued by reports detailing a new attempt by global giant Bacardi to tackle China with a new tea-based spirit. Frankly speaking, I’m a bit surprised that no one has tried this before. That’s because such a liquor, if packaged and marketed properly, could quickly win over many of China’s urban yuppies who eschew traditional homegrown baijiu liquors but haven’t exactly embraced western alternatives like whisky and rum. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Sogou is likely to list in the second half of the year, but will get a lukewarm reception from investors due to its status as a solid second-tier player without hopes of ever becoming a sector leader.
Sogou eyes H2 IPO
Some 3 months into the New Year, we’re still waiting for the first New York IPO by a Chinese Internet company after a blockbuster year in 2014. Now we’re getting word of a listing that could come in the second half, with news that portal stalwart Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) is planning an IPO for its decade-old Sougou search engine in that time frame.
The offering looks very so-so, as Sougou has failed to gain much traction despite its status as one of China’s oldest search players. More broadly speaking, we can probably expect to see more of this kind of ho-hum IPO from second-tier Chinese Internet firms for the rest of the year, since the most exciting players listed during last year’s surge in new offerings. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Many of Alibaba’s older stakeholders are likely to sell some or all of their shares after their lock-up period ends, driving the stock down to or even below its IPO level over the coming months.
Alibaba lock-up period ends
Top managers at China’s Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) are almost certainly watching their company’s stock with acute angst this week, even as business continues as usual with word of the e-commerce leader’s latest overseas expansion into Korea. The angst is the direct result of an end to the lock-up period for Alibaba’s stock, which could technically flood the market with up to 340 million shares that were forbidden from trading for the first 6 months after its record-breaking $25 billion IPO.
Put differently, all of those shares would be worth about $29 billion at Alibaba’s current price, accounting for more than one-tenth of its total market capitalization of about $210 billion. The shares officially become eligible for trading when the lock-up period ends on Wednesday, March 18, which is exactly 6 months after the shares made their trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange. (Chinese article) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Starbucks’ new tie-up with mass-market food maker Tingyi looks like a smart partnership that could help the pair quickly develop China’s largely untapped market for premium bottled beverages.
Starbucks, Tingyi tie on bottled drinks
Following its phenomenal success in China’s retail dining market, US coffee giant Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) is taking aim at bottled beverages in a new tie-up with one of the nation’s leading food product makers. The pairing is a big odd on the surface, bringing together the premium-minded Starbucks with Tingyi (HKEx: 322), a Taiwanese company whose main Master Kong brand is synonymous with tasty but decidedly low-end instant noodles.
But then again, nobody ever dreamed that Starbucks could overcome the huge odds against it by not only convincing tea-minded Chinese to drink coffee, but also getting them pay handsomely for the privilege. Accordingly, I would give the company a fairly strong chance for working similar magic in the highly competitive bottled beverage space, which would provide a huge new source of revenue from its China business. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Qihoo’s new smartphones, including its self-developed mobile OS, could perform well due to its strong software development record, potentially bringing some excitement back to its stock later this year.
Qihoo prepares mobile OS
I don’t usually have lots of positive things to say about Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU), but I’ll admit I’m quite intrigued by the latest word that the security software specialist is preparing to roll out its own mobile operating system (OS). The new system, to be called 360 OS, will be based on Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) popular Android OS, so in that regard it will vie with many other Android variations in the market. But regardless of that, I would expect this new OS could quickly become a major player in the fiercely competitive space, drawing on Qihoo’s record as one of China’s savviest and oldest software and Internet product developers. Read Full Post…
