In brand-obsessed China, it seems that even something as abstract and esoteric as a free trade zone (FTZ) can become a mingpai, or famous brand. That’s my quick assessment, on reading that our city’s highly hyped FTZ is getting ready to embark on a nationwide campaign to spread its name and business model as it approaches its first anniversary.
More broadly speaking, this move by the Shanghai FTZ shines a spotlight on the Chinese obsession with famous brands. As a China resident of many years, I’ve noted this fascination with mingpai has a long history in modern China dating back to well before the current reform era. But this latest move to create a “brand” around the new FTZ seems a bit extreme, and perhaps indicates it’s time for China to tone down its obsession with famous names. Read Full Post…
Internet titan Tencent (HKEx: 700) is wasting little time in its search for synergies with its growing stable of strategic partners, with word of a new tie-up between its popular WeChat instant messaging service and its search partner Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU). The new partnership will see WeChat provide exclusive access to its huge volumes of user-generated content for indexing by Sohu’s Sogou search engine. The alliance comes just 9 months after Tencent and Sohu announced an equity tie-up that saw the 2 companies combine their search businesses to form China’s third largest player. Read Full Post…
Wind power company Ming Yang (NYSE: MY) became China’s latest new energy equipment maker to dip its toe into project finance and development last week, when it announced a new plan for a massive wind farm project in Jiangsu province. Its announcement follows similar moves by many of its peers from the solar sector, and comes as Beijing embarks on a broader plan to clean up China’s air through initiatives like clean energy development. Read Full Post…
The telecoms world is buzzing today on news that China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) has made a major acquisition in Thailand, marking only its second purchase outside its protected home market despite years of saying it wants to go global. While it’s nice to see China Mobile finally put some of its huge cash pile to work, this particular purchase doesn’t look too exciting since it will only acquire 18 percent of True Corp, one of Thailand’s top telecoms companies. The deal also looks like it’s being driven by politics rather than True’s desire for any real strategic partnership, which also makes it look less exciting. Read Full Post…
A couple of new headlines are highlighting Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) lackluster performance in China in the first part of this year, as the smartphone pioneer falls behind homegrown sensation Xiaomi and takes much needed steps to improve its China App Store. In one of the reports, media are saying that Apple trailed Xiaomi for the first time in the first quarter of this year. Meantime, another report is saying that Apple is embarking on a major drive to recruit more China developers to make local apps for its iPhone, since a strong selection of good apps is key to maintaining its popularity in the market. Read Full Post…
China’s campaign to clean up its fragmented and scandal-plagued food industry has gotten a boost on the meat front, with word of a new tie-up between national grains giant COFCO and global private equity giants KKR and Baring Private Equity Asia. This latest move is part of Beijing’s growing effort to bring in foreign expertise to create a handful of major food groups that can ensure product quality and food safety. Unfortunately, nearly all the major giants now emerging are big state-run companies, meaning most of these firms are likely to be quite bureaucratic and most won’t be available to foreign stock buyers. Read Full Post…
Chinese workers who quit their jobs at IBM (NYSE: IBM) this spring rather than take new positions at Lenovo (HKEx: 992) under an M&A deal may be regretting their decision, with word that the deal may derail due to US national security concerns. Of course I’m being just a tad facetious with my comment about the former IBM workers, but I’m quite serious about the doubts that are suddenly swirling around the deal announced early this year for IBM to sell its low-end server business to Lenovo. The latest reports are a bit more neutral, though I would now give the deal just a 50 percent chance of getting clearance from the US national security regulator. Read Full Post…
Anyone who thought that Chinese telcos behaved like commercial companies is getting a lesson in the country’s unique blend of capitalism, with news that all 3 state-run carriers have been ordered to slash their promotional spending. In any other market, such a move would carry huge anti-competitive overtones and the regulator would quickly step in and stop such coordinated action. But this isn’t any other market, and the order to slash spending is coming from the government organization that is effectively the major shareholder of China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL), China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) and China Telecom. (HKEx: 728; NYS:E CHA) Read Full Post…
The web clean-up that began in April with a relatively innocuous-looking crackdown on Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) video sites is showing signs of becoming a major movement, with word that regulators in Beijing are investigating 52 website operators for violent and pornographic content, including giants Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU). News of this new clean-up comes after similar reports emerged last week that online game operators were coming under similar scrutiny, and indicates the current crackdown could last for the next few months. Read Full Post…
E-commerce leader Alibaba has long insisted on a shareholding structure that would put all decision making powers in its top managers, and now we’re getting a taste of what that could mean with word that the company will buy a stake in one of China’s best known soccer teams. On the surface at least, this deal doesn’t look very attractive. Most or all of China’s soccer clubs are losing money, and the league has a record for poor marketing and also a series of corruption scandals that have hurt its reputation. Any ordinary Alibaba shareholder would probably instantly veto such a purchase if he had that kind of voting power. Read Full Post…
Just a day after the solar panel sector was hit by a new negative trade ruling from the US, Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) gave its investors another unwanted surprise with word that it is preparing to raise more than $200 million through a combination of new stock and bond offerings. Trina joins a growing list of solar panel makers that are looking to western capital markets as confidence returns to the sector following a prolonged downturn dating back to early 2011. Read Full Post…
