The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Chinese IPO Drought in New York Ends as Tarena (Nasdaq: TEDU) Advances (English article)
Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) Announces Up to $600 Mln Share Repurchase Program (PRNewswire)
Alibaba’s Jack Ma Invests $532 Mln In Financial Software Firm (English article)
Kingsoft (HKEx: 3888) Makes $90 Mln Investment In Video Site Xunlei (Chinese article)
The tide of Chinese firms rushing to list in the US continues, with big new moves coming from security software specialist Cheetah Mobile and Leju, a unit of online real estate agent E-House (NYSE: EJ). Cheetah has filed for a New York listing to raise a hefty $300 million, in what would have been considered a major deal just a half year ago but now looks rather routine in the current wave of new offers by Chinese tech firms. Meantime, E-House is continuing its own IPO drive for Leju, which has just announced a new tie-up that will allow its users to invest in US real estate. Read Full Post…
It should come as no surprise to anyone that top officials at smartphone sensation Xiaomi are once again busy buzzing on their microblogs, since online hype has become a staple of this fast-growing company. But I was somewhat surprised that co-founder Lei Jun took time out from his usual hype to shoot down rumors of tie-ups with 2 of China’s leading Internet companies, hinting at his own big ambitions to soon take a spot alongside the “Big 3” of Alibaba, Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Meantime, ZTE’s (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) plans to position its nubia brand of smartphones as a higher end product got a nice boost from China’s first lady Peng Liyuan, who made a point of being seen using one of the models during her husband’s trip to Europe.Read Full Post…
As a Shanghai resident, it’s been interesting to watch the sudden flurry of changes blowing through the local media industry that has suddenly entered a state of crisis amid plunging advertising sales. The newest change has seen a major restructuring for Shanghai Media Group (SMG), the city’s dominant broadcaster and China’s second largest traditional media company. Just 2 or 3 years ago I would have called SMG China’s second largest media company, but I suspect it has been passed in value over that period by more nimble and fast-growing new media firms like Tencent (HKEx: 700), Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and possibly even Internet stalwart Sina (Nasdaq: SINA). Read Full Post…
Shanghai is working hard to reclaim its place as Asia’s entertainment capital, and has made big progress in that direction through recent major tie-ups with 2 of Hollywood’s leading stars, Disney (NYSE: DIS) and DreamWorks (NYSE: DWA). But that drive to the stars took on a new dimension over the past week when local media exposed a major local scam that feeds on people’s hopes of becoming celebrities.
Before coming to Asia a decade ago, I worked and lived in Los Angeles for most of the 1990s and got a first-hand look at the inner workings of the world’s entertainment capital. That included a thriving field of fake talent agents and other scam shops that sell the Hollywood dream of fame and wealth to ordinary people who secretly harbor dreams of stardom. Read Full Post…
Earlier reports that the founder of online entertainment company Shanda was looking to sell his empire have taken an interesting twist, with word that a buyer has emerged for the company’s struggling Ku6 Media (Nasdaq: KUTV) online video unit. News that Shanda will sell 41 percent of Ku6 sent the unit’s shares soaring 43 percent, as investors bet the company would get privatized. The move adds weight to previous reports that Shanda founder Chen Tianqiao wants to sell off the various pieces of his online entertainment empire, with leading e-commerce firm Alibaba named as a potential buyer. Read Full Post…
One of China’s 2 major meltdowns in the solar panel sector has taken a big step forward with word that trading in shares of LDK (NYSE: LDK) has been suspended and the de-listing process formally begun as the company liquidates. Meantime, word of a missed interest payment by a building materials maker is sending the latest signal that China will let more companies in ailing sectors default on their debt rather than pay off their creditors. That’s an important signal for the solar sector, which relies heavily on such debt to finance its operations and where many smaller players are in danger of similar defaults. Read Full Post…
Media are buzzing about the newly released annual results from telecoms equipment giant Huawei, though everyone is taking a different angle on the latest figures. Some are focused on the company’s return to strong profit growth, while others are highlighting its aggressive plans for the next 5 years. But my favorites are the headlines that trumpet Huawei’s ascendance to become the world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker, since it officially passed Sweden’s Ericsson (Stockholm: ERICb) in revenue terms last year. Read Full Post…
E-commerce leader Alibaba clearly has far too much cash and doesn’t know what to do with it. That’s my best explanation for its purchase of a stake in department store operator Intime Retail (HKEx: 1833), the latest acquisition in a supercharged buying spree over the last year. I’m personally quite puzzled by this latest deal, as it seems to contradict Alibaba’s mantra that it’s different from all of its rivals because it doesn’t own any actual retail businesses. Instead, the company has risen to prominence by operating online shopping malls that are populated by other retailers, which pay rent and other fees to Alibaba.Read Full Post…
New York investors lost another China play last week, when former IT outsourcing high-flyer Camelot Information Systems (NSYE: CIS) formally completed a privatization that will result in the imminent de-listing of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. (company announcement) Camelot was just the latest in a steady stream of Chinese firms to recently abandon New York, where their shares stagnated for years due to lack of investor interest. New York’s losses could easily become China’s gains, as many Chinese investors might like to buy shares of these locally based companies that are both profitable and have strong growth potential. Read Full Post…
Two of this year’s biggest IPOs are both in the headlines, kicking off what’s likely to become a steady flow of news surrounding upcoming listings for e-commerce leader Alibaba and Citic Group, one of China’s oldest and most successful conglomerates. Citic is the more interesting in this latest pair of news bits, since this is the first time we’ve heard about the group’s plans to go public via a backdoor offering through its Hong Kong-listed Citic Pacific (HKEx: 267) unit. Meantime, media are reporting that investment banks are so eager to underwrite Alibaba’s IPO that they’re offering to accept record low fees for their services. Read Full Post…
