Bottom line: Xiaomi is likely to quickly settle a patent dispute against it by Ericsson in India, which could slightly raise its costs but won’t affect its longer term development in the market.
India judge crimps Xiaomi’s global expansion
The global expansion plans of fast-rising Xiaomi may have hit a major roadblock, with word that a court has ordered the company to stop importing and selling its popular low-cost smartphones in India. Xiaomi had been targeting India as one of the main drivers in its campaign to become a major global smartphone brand, and has made a number of major moves in the market this year. But now it will have to deal with this new litigation, which is coming from global telecoms equipment giant Ericsson (Stockholm: ERICb) over patent infringement claims. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: CGN Power’s shares could have some upside over the next 6 months, while Momo is likely to delay its IPO until next week as it responds to allegations of illegal actions by its CEO.
Nuclear prospects power CGN IPO
News continues to come thick and fast in the year-end IPO rush, with a number of colorful stories making this year’s listing frenzy a bit feistier than usual. Leading the headlines was a sizzling trading debut for nuclear power company CGN Power (HKEx: 1816), as investors clamored for a play in China’s drive to clean up its polluted air. Meantime, mobile social networking (SNS) app maker and listing candidate Momo issued an updated filing for its New York IPO, explaining wrongdoing claims against its CEO by his former employer NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES). Lastly, seafood company China Tuna has formally yanked its Hong Kong IPO plan, ending a messy affair that was spoiled by revelations by environmental advocacy group Greenpeace. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Xiaomi’s new smart air purifier looks like a good move to build up its ecosystem of interconnected smart devices, while LeTV’s new EV initiative is more likely a publicity ploy.
China’s entrepreneurial tech firms never miss a good business opportunity, and environmental plays are suddenly the flavor of the day with word of major new pollution-related plays by smartphone sensation Xiaomi and online video firm LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104). Xiaomi has announced it will enter the smart devices space with a new line of air purifiers aimed at consumers tired of breathing polluted Chinese air. Meantime, LeTV has announced its intent to get into the electric vehicle (EV) business, as China opens up that sector to encourage development of more clean technology. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The visit by a top Chinese Internet official to Facebook’s US campus shows Mark Zuckerberg’s charm offensive toward China is producing results, which could see his company finally get permission to enter the market next year.
China Internet official Lu visits Facebook campus
I have to commend Mark Zuckerberg for his tenacity, after the Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) founder once again made headlines for receiving a visit from a top Chinese Internet official visiting the US. There are several interesting things about this latest development involving Zuckerberg’s endless quest to bring Facebook to China, beginning with the source of this latest news.
It turns out the news didn’t come from Facebook or even ordinary people who caught a glimpse of the meeting, but rather it came from the web page China.com.cn, an official government site under the State Council. (Chinese article) What’s more, the account was rather detailed and upbeat, and featured several photos of Zuckerberg chatting happily on the Facebook campus with Lu Wei, minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Momo’s IPO will go ahead but could debut weakly due to wrongdoing allegations against its CEO, while SouFun and Xunlei shares will be weak through 2015 due to a bad real estate market and stiff competition.
NetEase accuses Momo CEO of wrongdoing
The China Internet world is being rocked with scandals as we head into the end of the year, led by new allegations of wrongdoing against the founder and CEO of mobile social networking service Momo on the eve of its New York IPO. Meantime, recently listed online video site Xunlei (Nasdaq: XNET) is being rocked by accusations of putting pornography in some of its pop-up ads. Finally there’s leading real estate website SouFun (NYSE: SFUN), which is taking a hit after a highly-trumpeted agreement with a major real estate agency has fallen apart as China’s property market deteriorates. Read Full Post…
China’s anti-corruption campaign has accelerated into the private sector over the last few weeks, with shares of sportswear retailer Anta (HKEx: 2020) and online video provider LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) both tumbling after reports emerged that their top executives might be under investigation for illegal activities. In both cases the worries later appeared to be unfounded, but other signals have indicated the movement is indeed creeping into the private sector. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Linekong’s IPO should price in the middle of its range and post modest gains on its trading debut, while Dalian Wanda will price near the bottom of its range and debut flat to down slightly.
Linekong aims for December 19 trading debut
The year-end rush of IPOs is steaming ahead in Hong Kong, with online game operator Linekong popping back into the headlines for a year-end listing, as property giant Dalian Wanda starts to sell its own IPO story to investors. The former deal is relatively large for an online game company, aiming to raise nearly $200 million. Meantime, the latter could become the biggest IPO Hong Kong has seen in several years, with the potential to raise nearly $4 billion. Frankly speaking, neither of these deals looks too exciting to me as both come in sectors plagued by overcapacity and stiff competition. But that said, at least Dalian Wanda could be a good longer-term bet due to its status as one of China’s best-run and biggest commercial property developers. Read Full Post…
This week’s microblogging round-up continues a recent trend that’s seen China’s high-tech executives keep relatively quiet in cyberspace as they wrap up various year-end business and prepare for the long holiday period between western and Chinese new years. During this busy period there’s less time for chatter, and executives often take to the road for one last trip before a needed year-end rest.
Two of China’s most recognized tech chiefs, Lenovo (HKEx: 992) CEO Yang Yuanqing and TCL (Shenzhen: 000100) Chairman Li Dongsheng, both detailed year-end road trips on their microblogs this past week, providing some insight to the daily routines that these executives go through during the course of the year. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Fosun should drop out of the bidding war for Club Med to avoid overpaying for the resort operator, despite big potential from a possible Asia expansion.
Fosun in bidding war for Club Med
Chinese investors aren’t the only companies with big money to spend on global M&A for undervalued western assets. That’s the lesson that high-flying private equity firm Fosun International (HKEx: 656) is quickly learning, as it gets sucked into a bidding war for French holiday resort operator Club Med (Paris: CU). This particular bidding war is one of the first I’ve seen for a major western asset involving Chinese bidders, and could presage more competition from local western investors who want to take advantage of the many assets now now being sold at bargain prices. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Feiyu’s weak IPO isn’t surprising and its shares will keep trading down, while Momo’s New York listing could get a slightly better reception but will open flat to up slightly in its trading debut this week.
Feiyu listing aims to raise up to $100 mln
The usual flurry of offshore Chinese IPOs has materialized as we head into the end of 2014, capping a banner year for such offerings. But the year-end rush has been surprisingly devoid of tech names, though we’ve just seen what could be one of the final such IPOs of the year with the Hong Kong debut late last week of mobile game developer Feiyu Technology. Feiyu’s weak debut comes as mobile social networking (SNS) firm Momo also gets set to make its New York trading debut this week, in what could well be the last 2 tech offerings in a banner year for the group. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Haitong’s purchase of a Portuguese investment bank marks the start of a new wave of cross-border tie-ups in the financial services sector, which could fuel a rally in stocks of Chinese brokerages.
Haitong eyes Portuguese investment bank
A new wave of Sino-foreign tie-ups in the financial services arena could be taking shape, with word that China’s Haitong Securities (HKEx: 6837; Shanghai: 600837) is in talks to buy a Portuguese investment bank. I predicted just a couple of weeks ago that such a wave of tie-ups could be coming, following the launch of a historic Hong Kong-Shanghai financial link that will give average western and Chinese investors access to each other’s stock markets for the first time. Read Full Post…
China’s entrepreneurial tech firms never miss a good business opportunity, and environmental plays are suddenly the flavor of the day with word of major new pollution-related plays by smartphone sensation Xiaomi and online video firm LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104). Xiaomi has announced it will enter the smart devices space with a new line of air purifiers aimed at consumers tired of breathing polluted Chinese air. Meantime, LeTV has announced its intent to get into the electric vehicle (EV) business, as China opens up that sector to encourage development of more clean technology. 
